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Some 50,000 to 60,000 missing persons are reported to the police every year. Police classify them as "missing" for children under the age of 14, mentally disabled people and the elderly with dementia, while children over 14 and adults are classified as "runaway."
Since the statistics began to be compiled in 2006, the number has been rising, from 59,739 in 2006 to 35,439 in the first half of 2008 only. Assuming the average to be at 60,000, about 164 people go missing every day.
The number is considerably higher than in advanced countries. Japan had 88,000 missing and runaway cases in 2007, 22,000 more than Korea in the same year. But that is out of a population of 120 million, 2.5 times greater than Korea's, so the missing rate is lower. In Korea, 1.3 people out of 1,000 go missing, as against 0.7 in Japan.
As concerns grow, police now have a systematic investigation network for missing children. After a law on protection and support for missing children was enacted in 2005, the Police Agency for Missing Children under the Korean National Police Agency was established. It is open 24 hours a day to receive reports and distribute the cases to local police stations.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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