Photo: Police controls traffic near the site where Jang Mi-ran's body was discovered. Credit: JoongAng Ilbo.
On August 24, the body of Jang Mi-ran 장미란 was discovered in Jeju-do Province 제주도, more than three months after the 37-year-old Jeju resident was reported missing on May 15. The case has inspired outrage toward the Jeju police, who closed Jang’s case shortly after the missing persons report was filed by faking a phone call from Jang. The police only reopened their investigation after the news media began focusing on the case in mid-August.
Jang’s case prompted a review of Jeju police’s handling of missing persons, which turned up three additional missing persons cases falsely closed by police without any investigation. Between August 22 and 24, the police discovered three additional bodies, all identified as missing persons whose files had been closed.
But what began as a public outrage against police incompetence quickly devolved into racist slander. Jeju’s status as a special economic zone that has actively invited tourism and investment from China made it an easy target for endemic anti-Chinese racism. Social media was soon flooded with baseless claims of Jeju residents narrowly escaping kidnapping, and of police selling victims' information to Chinese organ-trafficking rings.
