Ko Pyeong-gi, chief of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, bows in apology Thursday over the scandal involving falsely closed missing-persons cases. [Yonhap]
Ko Pyeong-gi, chief of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, bows in apology Thursday over the scandal involving falsely closed missing-persons cases. [Yonhap]

The chief of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency apologized Thursday over a scandal in which missing persons were later found dead after an officer had falsely closed their cases. The apology came 13 days after the officer, identified by his surname Bu, a senior patrolman in his 30s, was booked on charges including dereliction of duty and obstruction of official duties by deception.

Agency Chief Ko Pyeong-gi convened a senior staff meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday and said police had "not only abandoned their duty to protect the lives and safety of the public, but also inflicted wounds that cannot be erased on the families through lies and deceit." He bowed and offered his "deepest apologies to the two deceased, who were never able to return to their families, and to the bereaved families who are enduring a grief beyond words."

Ko said he felt "a heavy sense of responsibility as the chief overseeing public safety in Jeju for failing to detect what was happening in time." He added that he "deeply apologized to the residents of Jeju and the people of the country, who must have felt great disappointment and anxiety over police misconduct that should never have occurred."

Ko pledged that the case would be "thoroughly investigated so that not a single unanswered question remains" and that the findings would be "disclosed without concealment." He also said a full reinvestigation of all missing-persons cases in the province would be conducted to check for any further wrongdoing.

Ko closed his remarks by promising to "pursue thorough reform until the public sees fit to trust us again" and bowed once more in apology.

Ko was included on a list of candidates for promotion to senior superintendent general in a high-level police personnel reshuffle on Aug. 12.

Foul play seen as unlikely in Jang Mi-ran case; death believed to have occurred shortly after disappearance

The Jeju Provincial Police Agency said it currently considers it unlikely that Jang Mi-ran, 37, whose skeletal remains were found after she had been missing for more than three months, was the victim of a crime including homicide.

An agency official said at a press briefing Wednesday that "based on the condition in which she was found at the scene and the autopsy findings, we believe the likelihood of criminal victimization is low," while adding that investigators were "keeping all possibilities open, as nothing can be ruled out definitively."

Police raised the possibility that Jang had died by hanging. The official said she "was found alongside a cord that appears to have been used for hanging" and that "the cord is believed to have been brought from her residence."

However, significant decomposition of the remains made it difficult to determine the precise time of death or identify signs of external injury. Jang's skeletal remains were discovered at a palm tree farm roughly a 10-minute walk from her lodgings, 104 days after she went missing. The official added that "due to advanced decomposition and partial skeletonization, it is difficult to assess trauma or asphyxiation, and the possibility that such signs were lost during the postmortem decomposition process cannot be excluded."

Police believe Jang died shortly after she disappeared. The official said that after Jang left her lodgings at around 10:15 p.m. on May 12, "there was no change in her location data or any phone activity until her mobile phone was switched off, and there was no lifestyle activity whatsoever, including credit card use." Based on those facts, the official said, "it is highly probable that Jang died in the early hours of May 13."

Officer Bu had closed Jang's missing-persons report on his own authority roughly two and a half hours after receiving it. Police said no phone activity has been recorded after the estimated time of her disappearance. Bu has reportedly continued to deny the charges, claiming he spoke with Jang by phone even after the investigation began.

Bu is also under investigation for allegedly falsely closing the case of a man in his 60s who went missing in February and was later found dead.

The agency official said investigators are conducting a comprehensive review of all 298 missing-persons reports Bu handled, adding that the number of cases examined so far could not be disclosed.


arin@heraldcorp.com