Vanished without a trace: Korea's most mystifying unsolved missing person cases

Of the roughly 70,000 adults reported missing in Korea every year, nearly all are found within weeks. But a small fraction vanish without a trace, and some stay missing for decades.

According to data from the National Police Agency submitted in August to Rep. Chung Choon-saeng of the Rebuilding Korea Party, the share of missing adult cases resolved within 30 days has stayed near 99 percent over the past five years. It stood at 98.8 percent in 2022, 98.9 percent in 2023, 98.8 percent in 2024, 99 percent in 2025 and 99.4 percent through July 2026.

For the slim remainder, however, investigators run out of leads. Here are some of Korea’s most baffling adult missing person cases that remain unsolved.

Veterinary student Lee Yun-hee (2006)

Lee Yun-hee, a veterinary student at Jeonbuk National University in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, went missing 20 years ago and has never been found. On June 5, 2006, she attended an end-of-semester gathering with professors and classmates at a restaurant roughly 1.5 kilometers from her studio apartment. She returned home around 2:30 a.m. the next day.

Lee spent a little over an hour browsing the internet on a desktop computer, starting around 2:59 a.m. on June 6. She spent three minutes searching “sexual harassment” and “112,” Korea’s police emergency number. The computer shut down at 4:21 a.m.

On June 8, her friends grew concerned when Lee hadn’t shown up for class. They called police and 119 emergency services and broke down her door, but she was gone. Despite a search involving a cumulative 15,000 police officers, her whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

Namhae Expressway disappearance (2013)

Kang Im-sook, 55 at the time, caused a crash near Munsan Interchange on the Namhae Expressway in South Gyeongsang Province in 2013 and went missing within about six minutes, before a tow truck could arrive.

Kang’s car was found with her phone, wallet and even her shoes still inside, but she has never been located. Police mobilized a cumulative 2,000 officers in the early stage of the search, deploying a special forces unit, divers, 20 search dogs, a helicopter and metal detectors, but failed to find her.

Investigators administered polygraph tests eight times on six people who were at the scene and conducted hypnosis interviews with 17 people, including those six, but turned up nothing. Kang’s whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

Busan newlyweds vanish (2016)

Newlyweds Jeon Min-geun, 34, and Choi Sung-hee, 33, vanished from their neatly tidied home in 2016, six months into their marriage.

Police initially suspected the couple had left on their own and held off on a full-scale investigation. After a week passed with no sign of them, investigators switched to a criminal probe.

Footage from 22 surveillance cameras in the apartment building showed the couple entering but never leaving. It was possible to evade the cameras, but doing so would have required a thorough knowledge of the blind spots and an extremely convoluted route.

Police suspected Jeon’s ex-girlfriend, who has been living in Norway, of involvement in the disappearance. In 2017, they asked Interpol to issue a red notice — an international alert for her arrest. She was arrested shortly afterward, but a Norwegian court rejected Korea’s extradition request, citing a lack of direct evidence.

Okcheon stone craftsman Bae Jin-seok (2007)

Bae Jin-seok, a stone craftsman with 20 years of experience, disappeared in Okcheon County, North Chungcheong Province, in 2007.

On March 23, Bae had a drink alone at a tavern at around 9 p.m., then joined a local resident named Kim for a second round after running into him by chance. Around midnight, they headed to a singing room but turned back after learning it was closed. Those were Bae’s last known movements.

Police obtained a witness account of a heated argument between Bae and Kim in an alley near the singing room on the night Bae vanished. Kim, the prime suspect, first said he went home alone after parting with Bae. After the police interrogated him, he admitted to the argument and said he took Bae home.

After his arrest, Kim confessed to killing Bae and dumping the body under a bridge, but nothing was found at the location he named. At a pretrial detention hearing, he retracted the confession, saying he had not killed Bae. The court rejected a detention warrant request, citing a lack of objective evidence to prove murder.

Seo, a neighborhood acquaintance of Kim, was drinking at the same tavern around the time Bae is believed to have vanished. After Bae’s disappearance, a series of strange events unfolded, including an unexplained arson fire that destroyed Seo’s car. As police turned their investigation toward him, Seo killed his live-in partner, who could have corroborated his alibi, and then himself.

Anyone with information on any of these cases is asked to call police at 182.