Jang Mi-ran, 37, vanished without a trace in May. Police records would later show her case had been quietly closed without anyone ever verifying if she was alive.

It was the second such discovery in a matter of days. The first was the skeletal remains of a man in his sixties, found on Saturday after his family warned officers he had spoken of suicide and left his children a farewell message.

Both cases had passed through the hands of the same officer, identified only by his surname Bu, who allegedly told worried relatives he had personally traced and spoken to the missing individuals – conversations investigators say never took place.

What began as a local scandal on the southern resort island has since turned into a far larger debate, on whether South Korea’s national police force is fit to inherit the sweeping investigative powers it is about to receive.

A president’s rebuke

“The recent breakdown in police discipline and irresponsibility in public safety matters have become serious problems,” President Lee Jae Myung told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday in response to the scandal, demanding the creation of a dedicated government body to police the police.