South Korean police will review roughly 310,000 missing persons cases closed over the past three years, following the arrest of an officer accused of falsifying records to shut two files on individuals later found dead on Jeju Island (a southern holiday island and popular tourist destination). President Lee Jae Myung has ordered an investigation into police conduct and demanded a reform plan, while the interior minister publicly apologised, acknowledging a structural flaw in how authorities handle disappearances. The scandal has intensified pressure to overhaul South Korean law, which currently grants emergency search powers — including phone tracking and DNA matching — only for missing children and people with certain disabilities, leaving the more than 70,000 adults reported missing each year classified as runaways with far fewer protections.