The 'Gakseori' Who Has Spent 35 Years Tracking Missing Persons, Even Staging a 'Self-Disappearance'

"When adults go missing, you cannot even put up flyers or go out searching. That has been the case in most of the situations I have witnessed."

Na Joo-bong, head of the National Association for Finding Missing Children and Family, expressed these difficulties in tracking missing adults during an interview with the media on August 26.

He noted that people hesitate to act due to cynical reactions such as assuming "they must have left home for a reason," or because of the intense spotlight missing persons face if their personal information spreads when they eventually return.

Na, who used to travel across the country selling cassette tapes from his truck as a traditional wandering entertainer known as a "Gakseori," accidentally began this work in 1991 when he ran into the parents of the "Frog Boys" victims handing out missing person flyers on the street.

The exhausted and sunken faces of the parents handing out flyers left a deep mark on his heart.

Na took the flyers from the parents and began handing them out alongside them.

That was the day his journey to find missing persons began.

As he devoted himself to searching for the Frog Boys, word spread, and other parents who had lost their children rushed to find him.

Inundated with endless phone calls and a non-stop stream of visitors, he spent his days frantically searching for missing persons.

At one point, he sold roasted chestnuts while driving a truck plastered with missing person flyers, but since that wasn't enough to make a living, he started working in insurance.

Although he tries to maintain his livelihood by opening a naengmyeon (cold noodle) restaurant near his office, he confessed that he feels a deep sense of guilt and gratitude toward his family.

He stated, "Over the past 35 years, I have contributed to helping some 800 missing persons return to the arms of their families."

As if to show the years he has spent chasing after missing persons, the container office of the National Association for Finding Missing Children and Family, tucked away on a roadside in Cheongnyangni, Seoul, was packed tight with missing person flyers.

His advocacy and activities also greatly contributed to the enactment of the Act on the Protection and Support of Missing Children in 2005.

For Chairman Na, who has argued since the enactment of the Missing Children Act that missing adults also need legal protection, the recent missing woman case feels all the more heartbreaking.

He recalled 2006, when the families of victims of serial killer Kang Ho-soon sought him out.

The daughter of a victim surnamed Bae (then 45), who had gone missing at the time, reportedly came to him crying and pleading for help.

Witnessing that, he made a comparison, saying, "While a mother who has lost her baby lamb must be in immense sorrow, isn't it equally painful and agonizing for a baby lamb that has lost its mother?"

Having witnessed the grief of families with missing adult members, he emphasized, "Using this recent Jeju case as a turning point, laws related to missing adults must be swiftly established so that missing individuals can be found more quickly."

Realizing the severity of adult disappearances, he even carried out a bold experiment in 2013.

On the day he had promised to have lunch with a police officer belonging to the Yongsan Police Station, he decided to turn off his mobile phone and stage a "self-disappearance."

Because he kept it hidden even from his family, his sudden disappearance caused an absolute uproar among those around him, including the police.

The missing person case was eventually brought to a close after about 30 hours when Chairman Na contacted the police the following evening, but he has continued to raise his voice for the enactment of relevant legislation ever since.

He emphasized that strengthening the expertise of dedicated police units is also necessary to solve the issue of missing adults.

Chairman Na advised, "When it comes to missing persons cases, we need to foster expertise by allowing officers to stay on the job for five or 10 years, and we should also consider giving rewards for finding long-term missing persons."

At the same time, he mentioned that compared to 1991 when he first started his activities, the system for locating missing persons has become considerably more sophisticated.

Back then, when there were not even proper laws in place, people would endlessly come to him carrying backpacks full of flyers, begging him to find their children.

Although public interest in missing children has grown after countless missing person cases, Chairman Na says that resolving the issue of missing adults still has a long way to go.

There are still people asking him for help to find family members that law enforcement authorities failed to locate.

Not long ago, he even received a letter from an inmate in a correctional facility asking him to "find my lost parents."

"Missing person cases will continue to occur endlessly until humanity perishes," he said, adding, "We must immediately launch a complete nationwide investigation into missing adult cases."

Chairman Na strongly urged, "I believe that only when the citizens become our eyes and look around their surroundings can our beloved family members return home."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.