Kim Jong-cheol, the newly appointed acting chief of the National Police Agency, will visit the site of a long-term missing persons case in Jeju as his first official action. Following recent criticisms of the police's handling of missing persons cases, he aims to directly assess the response and command structure and initiate improvements.
According to the National Police Agency on September 2, Kim will officially begin his duties by presiding over a national police command meeting at 9 a.m. on September 3 in the Seodaemun District of Seoul.
The meeting will include 14 newly appointed provincial police chiefs and the heads of 18 regional police agencies across the country. Kim is expected to review recent issues related to police case management and discuss plans for organizational reform and improvements in operational systems.
After the meeting, Kim will travel directly to Jeju. He plans to pay his respects at the funeral of a deceased missing person and visit a palm tree farm in Hallim-eup, where the missing person was found, to examine the initial response and search processes.
Following this, he will receive a report on the current state of missing persons case responses and measures to prevent future occurrences at the Jeju Police Agency. His visit to the site of the missing persons case on his first day in office underscores his commitment to rectify the shortcomings in case management and oversight.
In May, a woman in her 30s who had been missing was found dead 104 days after the initial report. The police officer responsible for the case has been charged with closing the case without confirming the woman's safety and falsely entering her death in the system.
This officer was also involved in another missing persons case, where a man in his 60s was found dead 51 days after being reported missing, raising broader concerns about the police's management of missing persons cases.
In response, the National Police Agency is currently reviewing approximately 310,000 missing persons cases handled over the past three years. They are implementing procedures that require managerial approval for case closures to enhance oversight and management of the case closure process.
Kim is expected to instruct the Jeju Police Agency to clarify the facts of the case and improve the overall response system for missing persons cases.
On the same day, Kim expressed concerns regarding public distrust in police investigations and administration, stating, "I worry that the public's distrust in police work has reached a critical point. We need to thoroughly review every aspect of police operations, to the extent that I would call it a 'redesign.'"
* This article has been translated by AI.
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