[Anchor]

Following a series of controversies over police falsely closing cases, Prime Minister Han Sung-sook strongly reprimanded the police and ordered measures to prevent a recurrence. The police have belatedly launched a full investigation into missing persons cases nationwide.

Reporter An Huijae has the details.

[Reporter]

Prime Minister Han Sung-sook expressed deep regret toward the police today (the 23rd), ordering a thorough inspection to determine whether there were any other instances where missing persons cases were falsely closed, similar to the case involving Jeju police officers.

With shoddy investigations coming under fire following the Jang Yoon-ki case misconduct, as well as in the realm of missing persons cases, the police have been placed on high alert.

Hong Seok-ki, head of the National Investigation Headquarters, visited the Jeju Provincial Police Agency today and offered an apology, saying, "I feel deeply sorry to the public." The police have initiated a full inspection of missing persons cases nationwide to check for any circumstances of false case closures.

While they are also working to improve the computer systems, limitations remain.

It was revealed that a police officer belonging to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, who was arrested on charges of shoddy investigation, had previously completely deleted information regarding individuals such as Jang Mi-ran from the internal missing persons profiling system. In response, the police plan to establish a dual-verification procedure requiring the approval of a team-leader-level manager or higher for case closures. However, critics point out that it is still difficult to verify the truth if working-level personnel submit false reports.

[Kim Young-shik / Professor of Police Administration, Soonchunhyang University: (The reports) have to be trusted. Because the person in charge has a lot of discretion. They just discuss it based on reports and leave it at that, so stricter management is needed.]

The police have also belatedly launched an all-out domestic and international search operation, including requesting an Interpol red notice for Jang.

While some argue that the law should be amended to allow location tracking and other measures without consent even in cases of adults, similar to missing child cases, strong counterarguments remain that there are many factors to consider, such as the potential for abuse and voluntary departures from home.

(Video取材: Shin Dong-hwan, Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa, Design: Lee Jong-jung)