The Korean National Police Agency has suspended the entire command line at the Jeju Western Police Station, including its current and former chiefs, over the false closure of a missing person case involving a 37-year-old woman surnamed Jang.
The agency said on the 25th that it had suspended all four members of the command line — the former and current station chiefs, the head of criminal affairs and the missing persons team leader — holding them responsible for supervisory failures in the false closure of the case.
Both the officer who led the station when Jang was first reported missing on May 15 and the current chief were included in the action. Police plan to examine whether they fulfilled their command and oversight duties during the initial report, the handling and closure of the case, and the response after the case was reported again.
The agency has dispatched internal affairs personnel from its headquarters to Jeju to verify the facts and is conducting an internal affairs investigation into the full command line.
Earlier, a police officer surnamed Boo, a senior officer at the Jeju Western Police Station, was booked on July 14 on charges of dereliction of duty for falsely closing the missing person case by claiming Jang's whereabouts had been confirmed, even though the officer had not actually been in contact with her.
Jang's family filed a second missing person report on June 19 after being unable to reach her. Police belatedly tracked her movements and, more than 100 days later, found a body believed to be Jang's the previous day in Hallim-eup, Jeju City. Police are confirming the exact identity through an examination by the National Forensic Service.
Meanwhile, a review of the arrest warrant request for Boo was scheduled to be held at the Jeju District Court at around 2:30 p.m. that day.
