South Korean YouTuber helps locate missing man with disability during livestream

SEOUL - A South Korean YouTuber and his viewers helped a man with a cognitive disability return home safely in an unlikely but fortunate encounter with the missing man during a livestream in Gwangju.

The YouTuber 2ro2, who has some 143,000 subscribers as of Nov 30, was conducting a live broadcast on the streets of the south-western city on Nov 21 when he encountered a man wearing a blue jacket. The man told him he was a 23-year-old college student, to which 2ro2 responded with confusion, as he appeared to be middle-aged.

The pair had a brief conversation and parted ways, after which one of the viewers told 2ro2 that the man was reported missing on Nov 14. The missing-person alert shared by the viewer showed a 44-year-old man surnamed Kim, whose appearance and description exactly matched the person 2ro2 had just encountered.

The YouTuber notified the police and attempted to stay with the man by suggesting that they talk for five more minutes, playing along with the man’s apparently confused belief that he is decades younger than he actually is.

The man refused, but 2ro2 followed him and notified police of his location.

Police officers who arrived at the site identified the missing man, and he was sent back to his family.

A government report released in May showed that 49,624 people were reported as missing in 2024, of whom 8,430 were mentally disabled. Most were found, but 121, or 0.49 per cent, were still unaccounted for at the time of the report.

The data showed that 95 per cent of people reported missing were found within two days, indicating that a prompt response is crucial in these situations. Since 2021, South Korea has been sending missing person alerts to residents of the area where the person disappeared. THE KOREA HERALD/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK