Missing-Person Reports Filed Every 5 Minutes Over Chuseok Holidays

More than 5,000 missing-person reports were filed during Chuseok holidays over the past three years, or roughly one every five minutes. Police said they will keep the revamped missing-person response system — overhauled after a controversy over a covered-up case in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province — fully operational through this year's holiday.

A total of 5,155 missing-person reports were filed over 18 days of Chuseok holidays from 2023 through last year, according to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Yang Boo-nam of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, on the 22nd. Daily reports rose 11.8% to 298.7 last year from 267.2 in 2023.

Adults accounted for the largest share at 2,994 cases, or 58.1%, followed by children under 18 with 983 cases, or 19.1%, dementia patients with 805 cases, or 15.6%, and people with intellectual, autistic or psychiatric disabilities with 373 cases, or 7.2%.

The National Police Agency said on the same day that recoveries of missing people have risen sharply since it began implementing improvement measures drawn up last month after the controversy over the covered-up case in Jeju. From the 24th of last month through the 13th of this month, 12,793 missing people were found, up 64.7% from 7,768 during the preceding period from the 3rd to the 23rd of last month. The share found within three hours of a report also climbed 5.9 percentage points to 72.0% from 66.1% over the same periods.

Police revised their system so that investigators can no longer close cases on their own, requiring sign-off from a criminal affairs division chief. Station chiefs now hold daily meetings to review all cases filed the previous day and assess whether investigations were handled properly, and at least two investigators must be on duty at night and on holidays. The agency is also working to create dedicated missing-person investigation units at the National Police Agency and metropolitan and provincial police agencies, and to add staff to missing-person teams at local stations.

Several lives have been saved since the measures took effect. On the 12th of this month, police in Jeonbuk State received a report that a woman with dementia had disappeared from her home. Officers reviewed closed-circuit television footage and canvassed the area, confirming that she had headed toward a nearby wooded hill. After issuing a missing-person alert by text message and searching with drones and helicopters alongside fire authorities, they found her exhausted on the hillside 15 hours after the report and took her to a hospital.

Police are also pushing for legislation on missing adults that would establish a legal basis for quickly checking mobile phone location data for adult cases, as is already allowed for children and dementia patients.

"We are grateful to the officers in the field who work around the clock to protect the lives and safety of missing people, and we will respond closely with no gaps in public safety through the Chuseok holiday so that public concerns over missing-person investigations can be put to rest," an official at the National Police Agency said.