Acting Police Chief Vows Reforms After Public Trust Erodes Over Mismanaged Cases

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The nation's new acting police chief on Thursday issued a statement of de facto self-reflection over the recent mishandling of high-profile missing-person and murder cases, vowing sweeping internal reforms to regain public trust.

Kim Jong-chul, the new acting head of the Korean National Police Agency, issued the statement at a meeting with new police leadership following his inauguration ceremony in Seoul.

The slogan of the meeting was "The police have fallen short. Through deep self-reflection and sweeping reforms, we will rebuild the police from the ground up."

"The police have no reason to exist if they lose the trust of the people," Kim said in the statement. We will not stop at mere rhetoric. We will prove it through changes and actions."

The statement came amid growing public outcry after a Jeju police officer was found to have wrongfully closed the case of a missing woman without confirming her safety, a move that may have contributed to her death.

Earlier, a separate allegation that police in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, had leaked investigative materials to a murder suspect's father, who is also a police officer in the city, deepened public distrust of the police.

Kim made it clear that he would not attribute the repeated cases of police misconduct solely to individual police officers, but would instead examine the responsibility of police leadership and the organization as a whole.

At the meeting, the police leadership decided to review the entire process of handling missing-person cases, including the initial response, search, investigation, reporting and closure.

They also decided to hold officers accountable regardless of their position or rank if dereliction of duty is confirmed in the ongoing nationwide inspection of missing-person cases.