"Trust Has Collapsed," Lawmakers Rebuke Police; Acting Police Chief Apologizes

[Anchor]

Rebukes poured out in the National Assembly over the disappearance case of Jang Miran, with lawmakers criticizing that public trust in the police is plummeting. The Minister of the Interior and Safety and the Acting Police Chief bowed their heads in apology.

Here is reporter Ha Jeongyeon.

[Reporter]

At a full meeting of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee,

Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties unanimously rebuked the police over their fraudulent handling of the Jang Miran disappearance case in Jeju.

[Chae Hyun-il / Democratic Party Lawmaker: According to the manual for receiving and processing missing persons reports, isn't there a system for reporting to superiors? Arbitrarily handling it as an unidentified body case like this, are instances like this being found often?]

[Kim Yeji / People Power Party Lawmaker: I do not think this is a matter of merely waiting for the results of our own investigation and inspection. This is fraudulent closure and a failure of internal control. You need to inspire more trust, but things that keep destroying trust are happening right now.]

As it was revealed that Police Inspector A of the Jeju Western Police Station's missing persons team had arbitrarily closed other missing persons cases besides that of Jang Miran, Minister of the Interior and Safety Yunho stated, "Because the police failed to play their proper role, a citizen's life was lost."

Following the Jang Yun-gi case and now the Jeju disappearance case, the police's poor handling of cases has come under fire consecutively, prompting the Acting Police Chief to also bow his head.

[Yoo Jaesung / Acting Police General: I think it is very regrettable that we have caused concern to the public regarding the investigation into the missing person case in Jeju.]

However, when an opposition lawmaker rebuked him by asking, "Trust has collapsed, so should the police be allowed to handle the investigation, and is it okay to abolish the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights?", Acting Police Chief Yoo Jaesung maintained that "the Jeju disappearance case is separate from supplementary investigation rights."

Lawmakers also continued to question the motive behind the crime, asking why "Inspector A fraudulently closed the missing person case," but Acting Police Chief Yoo only stated that "it is a matter that must be clearly uncovered through investigation," failing to provide a definitive answer.

(Video by: Shindong | Video Editing: Mingyu)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.