Seoul mayor reported missing, search underway
SEOUL,(HINDUSTAN TIMES), 9 JULY 2020 - The mayor of South Korean capital Seoul has been reported missing and police are searching for him on Thursday.
Police officers said they are looking for Mayor Park Won-soon at Seoul’s Sungbuk neighbourhood where his mobile phone signal was last detected. They said Park’s mobile phone was currently turned off.
His daughter called police earlier Thursday and said her father has been unaccounted for, the police officers said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the matter.
They gave no further details. But Yonhap news agency reported Park’s daughter told police that her father left “a will-like” message before leaving their home earlier Thursday.
Yonhap said officers, drones and police dogs have been mobilized for Park’s search.
Kim Ji-hyeong, an official from the Seoul Metropolitan
Government, confirmed that Park did not show up for work on Thursday because of unspecified reasons and canceled all his schedules, including a meeting with a presidential official at his Seoul City Hall office.
A longtime civic activist and human rights lawyer, Park was elected as Seoul mayor in 2011 and became the city’s first mayor to be voted into a third term in June last year.