Living off the grid or murdered? The unsolved disappearance of the Busan newlyweds.

Home > National > Social Affairs

Living off the grid or murdered? The unsolved disappearance of the Busan newlyweds.

Published: 23 Dec. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 17 Feb. 2026, 13:28

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

[KOREAN CRIME FILES #11]

Behind the glitz and glamour seen in pop culture, Korea’s grimmest and most harrowing crime stories, some more well-known than others, continue to haunt society today. The Korea JoongAng Daily takes a deep dive into some of these stories, sharing a glimpse into the darker side of society as well as the most up-to-date known facts. — Ed.

On a warm spring night in May 2016, 33-year-old stage actress Choi Sung-hee and her husband of seven months, 34-year-old restaurateur Jeon Min-geun, returned hours apart to their high-rise apartment in Busan.

Footage of their return, captured by surveillance cameras in the building, was the last confirmed trace of either of them before they vanished into thin air.

With only a pet dog remaining in the apartment and an untouched car in the garage, Choi and Jeon’s disappearance baffled their families, friends and colleagues.

But as investigators delved into the couple’s past, they found themselves mired in a web of suspicions surrounding Jeon’s former girlfriend — a woman who had haunted Jeon and Choi long before they married.

CCTV footage showed Choi Sung-hee carrying groceries as she returned home around 10 p.m. on May 27, 2016. This footage was aired by the Korean investigative program "Unanswered Questions" after her disappearance. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A couple vanishes

It was just after 3 a.m. on May 28 when Jeon returned from work to the couple’s apartment near Gwangalli Beach in Busan’s Suyeong District. Five hours earlier, Choi had come home from a late-night supermarket run. CCTV cameras outside the building captured both of them entering separately.

When Jeon’s father was unable to reach him the following morning to deliver health supplements, concern mounted. Jeon’s business partner, who co-ran a restaurant with him, also reported that he had failed to show up for work. As his worries grew, Jeon’s father filed a missing person report on May 31.

After reviewing footage from 22 surveillance cameras in and around the apartment complex, police reached a chilling conclusion.

The couple appeared to have disappeared from inside their own building.

CCTV footage showed Jeon Min-geun returning home around 3 a.m. on May 28, 2016. This footage was aired by the Korean investigative program "Unanswered Questions" after his disappearance. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Inside the apartment, investigators found no signs of foul play — only clues that the couple’s departure had been sudden and possibly unplanned.

Groceries from Choi’s supermarket trip lay unpacked on the kitchen table. Laundry sat unwashed. The couple’s beloved dog, recovering from recent surgery, had been left unattended, which Choi’s friends insisted she would never have done. Even their car remained parked in the underground garage.

A forensic examination of the apartment revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

Police expanded their search to bus terminals, train stations and nearby streets, but found no trace of the couple anywhere in Busan.

To this day, the last verifiable sighting of Jeon and Choi remains the moment they walked into their apartment building.

A vehicle belonging to Jeon Min-geun and Choi Sung-hee sits abandoned in the parking garage of their apartment building in this footage broadcast by the Korean investigative program "Unanswered Questions" following their disappearance in May 2016. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Last words

Although Jeon and Choi were last seen on surveillance cameras entering their building, that was not the final trace they left behind.

When a colleague called Choi’s phone on May 29, Jeon answered instead, saying only that she could not come to work “for the time being.” The following day, Choi’s theater company received a text message from her phone, stating that she was in “no condition to perform” and had been hospitalized again after “causing another incident like last time.” The company’s director, who regarded Choi as a diligent worker, later recalled that the message’s tone was stiff and formal, unlike her usual warm, casual style.

A day later, Jeon told an employee at the theater company that Choi could not answer calls herself because she had been medicated and hospitalized. Cell tower records later showed that Jeon placed the call from near the couple’s home, yet no hospital in the area had any record of her admission.

Jeon also sent several messages to acquaintances and family members. On May 29, he told his business partner, “I have something I must deal with. I won’t be able to come in for one to two months.” On June 2, he sent his father a brief reassurance — “I’m fine” — before cutting off all contact.

Even after the couple went completely incommunicado, cell towers continued to register signals from their phones until June 2. Jeon’s phone was last traced to a bus stop in Gijang County, Busan, located approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) east of the couple’s home, around 9 a.m. that day.

Thirteen hours later, Choi’s phone last pinged a cell tower in Gangdong District in eastern Seoul, near the residence of Jeon’s biological mother, who was divorced from his father.

How the phones ended up nearly 400 kilometers apart remains unexplained.

Footage broadcast by the Korean investigative program "Unanswered Questions" shows the exterior of the apartment building where Jeon Min-geun and Choi Sung-hee lived in Suyeong District, Busan, before their disapperance in May 2016. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Divided in-laws

While the disappearance devastated one family, the other responded with uneasy reserve.

As days passed without any contact from her daughter, Choi’s mother attempted to request phone location tracking on June 5 — only to learn that Jeon’s father had filed a missing person report five days earlier.

When Choi’s parents confronted Jeon’s father and stepmother, they were met with a curt response: The couple “would come back,” and that both families should simply “wait and see.”

By contrast, Jeon’s father and stepmother appeared distant and defensive. In an interview with an investigative news team, his stepmother remarked, “I imagine they’re living well somewhere, wherever that may be.”

Jeon’s father, who initially avoided talking to the media, later downplayed the disappearance of his son and daughter-in-law, suggesting that Choi may have left of her own accord.

Wedding footage of Choi Sung-hee, left, and Jeon Min-geun from November 2015, which aired on the Korean investigative program "Unanswered Questions" after their disappearance in May 2016 [SCREEN CAPTURE]

He said she had often talked about “wanting to go somewhere far away” and speculated that she “might have entered a temple.” He added cryptically that his priority was to “protect” his son.

His nonchalance puzzled those around him, particularly given that he was the one who had filed the missing person report.

The attitude of Jeon’s father and stepmother was even at odds with his biological mother, who appeared frantic in media interviews after his disappearance.

The media speculated that Jeon’s father and stepmother knew more about the couple’s fate than they let on. An acquaintance told reporters from an investigative news program that he overheard Jeon’s father mutter, “She won’t be forgiven this time,” referring to a woman who was not Jeon’s wife.

Woman in the shadows

The woman Jeon’s father appeared to be referencing was Jeon’s first love, whom he had dated in high school.

Although the pair initially planned to marry, their relationship ultimately ended due to opposition from their families. She married another man in 2004, but resumed seeing Jeon and initiated divorce proceedings less than two months after her wedding.

As her divorce grew increasingly acrimonious, Jeon reportedly cut off contact with most people and lived in seclusion at his biological mother’s home, which acquaintances said fueled resentment on the part of his former girlfriend.

The two remained in contact even after she remarried and moved to Norway in 2014. According to acquaintances, Jeon carried a second mobile phone used exclusively to talk with her for hours at a time.

Those close to Jeon and Choi said the woman’s behavior deteriorated sharply after her young daughter died in Norway on March 5, 2015. She allegedly began sending Jeon lengthy, disjointed messages, including statements such as, “I’ll bring my daughter back using cryogenics,” and “My life was ruined because of you.”

She also reportedly sent threatening messages to both Jeon and Choi, insisting she could not accept their marriage in the lead-up to their wedding in November 2015.

Choi, struggling with depression, sought psychiatric counseling, legally changed her name and switched her phone number — yet told friends that she continued to receive messages from Jeon’s ex-girlfriend. Jeon, too, was deeply troubled and hired guards for his wedding with the help of a friend in the private security sector.

While Jeon’s father dismissed the threats as harmless, Jeon reportedly told him, “You have no idea how frightening she is.”

Too many coincidences

When investigators examined the woman’s movements around the time of the disappearance, the timeline raised serious questions.

Jeon’s former girlfriend flew back to Korea shortly before May 28, 2016. During her stay, she used only cash, leaving no credit card trail for police to follow. Not only did she tell her mother in Korea that she would be traveling in Africa during this time, but she also departed Korea shortly after the couple vanished — two weeks earlier than scheduled.

Korean detectives began to suspect that Jeon’s former girlfriend — or someone acting on her behalf — may have been involved in the couple’s disappearance.

Norwegian police were asked to investigate her, but she and her husband moved residences soon after they were questioned about her movements in Korea during the time Jeon and Choi vanished.

In March 2017, Korean authorities obtained an Interpol red notice against her, and she was taken into custody eight months later in Norway.

However, Korean investigators were unable to present direct physical evidence linking her to the disappearance. As a result, a Norwegian court denied Korea’s extradition request in December 2018.

Left: Jeon Min-geun, left, and Choi Sung-hee at their wedding in November 2015. Right: Jeon's former girlfriend as photographed by the Korean investigative program "Unanswered Questions" from outside the window of her home in Norway. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Darker theories

As the years passed, speculation deepened. Investigators and criminologists have debated several possibilities.

One theory suggested the couple went deliberately into hiding to escape Jeon’s former girlfriend. Yet this failed to explain the abandonment of their pet, the lack of surveillance footage showing their exit or the groceries Choi had purchased.

Another theory posited that Jeon had killed Choi, which might account for the suspicious messages sent from her phone. Police, however, found no evidence of violence or struggle inside or outside their apartment.

One especially chilling hypothesis to augment this theory suggested that Choi was killed in another apartment within the same building, allegedly rented under a false identity.

Under this scenario, Choi may have been lured from her apartment, detained elsewhere in the building and killed. Her body would then have been removed through surveillance blind spots known only to someone who had studied the camera system in advance — possibly her husband, who could have bought time by maintaining limited contact with her colleagues.

A missing persons flyer posted by the Busan Nambu Police Precinct after Jeon Min-geun, left, and Choi Sung-hee disappeared in May 2016. [SCREEN CAO

Unresolved mystery

The disappearance of the newlyweds remains one of Korea’s most enduring unsolved cases.

Choi’s parents have continued to search for answers. In the years since her disappearance, they learned that she had been seven to eight weeks pregnant at the time she vanished, compounding their loss.

Jeon’s biological mother later traveled to Norway with a documentary crew, appealing to her son’s former girlfriend to disclose what she knew. The encounter ended without resolution, and she was later reported to the police for harassment.

Because surveillance cameras captured only the couple’s final moments as they entered their apartment building, little is known for sure about where they went afterward. The truth of what happened after their disappearance remains known only to eyewitnesses — if there are any.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]