South Korean police officer admits to closing missing person cases to avoid work

A South Korean police officer has admitted to closing missing persons cases without investigating them in order to avoid additional work, according to authorities.The officer, surnamed Bu, was arrested earlier this month after he was accused of prematurely closing cases on the popular holiday island Jeju and lying to missing persons' families.Amid mounting public criticism, police embarked on belated searches for several missing persons on the island, and have since discovered four bodies in recent weeks.The scandal has prompted President Lee Jae Myung to vow to reform the police, as the government prepares to give the police more powers.On Tuesday, the Jeju-provincial-police" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="197785" data-entity-type="organization">Jeju Provincial Police said Bu had falsely closed at least two high-profile cases and had been charged with forgery of public electronic records, obstruction of official duties and dereliction of duty.In both cases, Bu had falsely claimed he had contacted the missing persons and then prematurely closed their cases without confirming their whereabouts and safety.A police statement said that during their investigations into Bu, he had "stated to the effect that 'the missing person was a typical adult so I thought about it carelessly. If the case was not closed, there would have been a lot to take care of, and out of a sense of pressure over the case handover, I falsely closed it'."One of the cases involved a 37-year-old woman named Jang Mi-ran who went missing in May and was reported missing by her boyfriend.