[Anchor]

The police officer who was arrested for falsely closing the Jeju missing person case has admitted that his claim of having spoken on the phone with the missing person was a lie. The police plan to explain the motive for the crime through a briefing next week.

This report is by reporter Kim Minjun.

[Reporter]

Police Officer Bu, affiliated with the Jeju Western Police Station who was arrested on the 25th, had consistently maintained that he spoke with the missing person, a person surnamed Chang.

On May 15, just two and a half hours after first receiving the missing person report for Chang, he closed the case, claiming that his previous statement to the family that he had "gotten in touch with Chang" was true.

However, Officer Bu had entered Chang, with whom he claimed to have spoken, into the internal police system as a "traffic accident fatality."

On the night before last (the 27th), the police presented mobile carrier call logs along with an autopsy result suggesting that Chang was presumed to have died prior to the initial missing person report, and Officer Bu reportedly admitted to some of the charges at that point.

This means he acknowledged that his previous statements were lies.

While the motive for the crime remains unclear, a police official stated, "Because there is a concern that he might retract his statement, we cannot specifically answer the background behind why he admitted to the charges."

To uncover the cause of death of Chang, who was found dead about 100 days after the missing person report was falsely closed, the police also conducted a meticulous forensic inspection of locations such as a palm tree farm.

This is because suspicions have been raised in online communities and elsewhere, continuing the controversy, although the possibility of foul play is deemed not to be high.

The police plan to forward Officer Bu to the prosecution sometime next week and explain the motive for the crime through an official briefing.

As criticisms regarding shoddy investigations spread once again following the Jang Yoon-ki case, the National Police Agency issued a special alert prohibiting drinking and dinner gatherings for all police officers nationwide for a ten-day period through the 6th of next month.

(Video by Kim Ho-jin, Design by Park Tae-young)