The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Mobile Patrol Division announced on the 18th that they discovered Mr. Kim, a man in his 30s with a severe intellectual disability, who had been missing for about 7 months, and returned him to his family.
The police responded to a report received on the 5th of last month while patrolling the underground shopping area near Gangnam Station, stating that "a strange person is residing in the Lee & Ko at Gangnam Station's meeting plaza." They found a man sitting on the street with a large bag and an empty water bottle near the indicated location, and upon checking his identity, he was confirmed to be Mr. Kim, who was reported missing at the Mapo Police Station in September of last year.
Mr. Kim showed a hostile reaction to the police officers and attempted to leave. However, after the officers persuaded him, he reportedly tearfully expressed his intention to return home, stating that he had been living by either starving or receiving free meals from a church.
Mr. Kim is said to have disappeared last September while his younger brother briefly left to park the car. The brother mentioned, "(Mr. Kim) has an intellectual disability at the level of a 1st to 2nd grader in elementary school, so I was very worried whether he was eating or being taken advantage of by bad people."