Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Japanese female tourist missing for a month
By Lee Hyo-sik
A 21-year-old Japanese female tourist has been missing for a month after she left a hotel in Myeong-dong, downtown Seoul, with an unidentified man.
According to the Namdaemun Police Station Wednesday, the woman from the Hyogo Prefecture came to Korea with her mother on Sept. 19 for a three-day visit. She came back here again on Sept. 26 by herself to meet a man who helped her and her mother when they were arguing with a taxi driver over fares.
The Yomiuri Shinbun and other major daily newspapers have covered the incident. According to the newspapers, the missing woman was seen leaving the hotel on Oct. 6 with a young man on a surveillance camera. The woman did not seem to be leaving against her will. Since then, her whereabouts have been unknown.
Police said nothing has been verified yet, adding the investigation is still in its early stages.
The missing woman’s mother came to Korea on Oct. 14 to report her daughter’s disappearance to the police. The mother told officers that she was not sure whether the man who helped her and her daughter a month ago was Korean or Japanese. But she said he spoke Japanese fluently.
``We are closely cooperating with the Japanese foreign ministry to secure the missing woman’s phone and credit card records. We confirmed that her credit card was used in provincial areas multiple times through the end of October. She also called her family several times,’’ a police officer said.
But he said investigators have not yet indentified the places where her credit card was used because it takes several weeks for companies to notify users of transaction records.