[How About This Book] The First Female Strong Squad Chief Who Overcame All Prejudice and Discrimination

The First Female Violent Crimes Detective Park Mi-ok
Handled Cases Like Shin Chang-won and Serial Killer Jeong Nam-gyu
Also Investigated the Sungnyemun Arson Incident
With Exceptional Intuition and Experience
Promoted to Lieutenant After 9 Years
Ended 30 Years as a Detective
Recording People She Met in the Field
Opened a Bookstore in a Corner of Her Jeju Home

To the ticket-dabang ladies, he was special. Amid the tight schedule set by the pimp, he paid all day long to give them rest. He never touched their bodies. He ordered delicious food to eat together and then just slept soundly. When parting, he even gifted them the rare cell phone of that time. He asked what they needed and listened attentively when they said they wanted to pay off their debts and return to their hometowns.

The ladies, who were treated like "bodies" by the pimp, felt they were treated as "people" by him. This is why the fugitive Shin Chang-won was able to remain on the run for over two years.

Detective Park Mi-ok met with ten women who had been Shin Chang-won's girlfriends to understand the full story. She is a strong-willed woman. Assigned to the special arrest team, she deflected the male detectives' mocking remarks calling her a "wen naembi" (a derogatory slang term belittling women) with a retort telling them to "stay quiet like a kettle." The materials she compiled based on stories from the fugitive’s ex-girlfriends played a decisive role in his capture. "If a man and woman live together but have no wedding photos or pictures together, and instead of furniture and household items, there are only exercise equipment and pets, please report it."

In 1991, after the launch of the Women's Detective Mobile Unit, which was a hot topic at the time, she is posing for media coverage at the shooting range.
[Photo by Iyagijangsu]

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Park Mi-ok is the first female detective in the history of the Korean police’s violent crimes unit. She began her detective career in 1991 at the age of 23 when she was selected for the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s first female detective squad. Utilizing her rare status as a female detective at the time, she achieved remarkable success and built an impressive record of arrests with her high-level martial arts skills. These include the escapee Shin Chang-won case, serial killer Jung Nam-gyu case, the murder of a pregnant doctor’s wife, the murder of a middle school girl by the Han River, and fire investigation of the Sungnyemun arson case. She was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in just nine years, a position that usually takes 20 years from patrol officer.

The word "first" always followed her career path. In 2000, she became the first female violent crimes team leader, and in 2002, she was appointed as the first female head of the drug crime investigation team at Yangcheon Police Station. From 2007, she concurrently served as the head of the behavioral science (profiling) team and the fire investigation team at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. She gained significant attention for overseeing the fire investigation at the Sungnyemun arson scene. In 2010, she served as the head of the violent crimes unit at Mapo Police Station, and in 2011, she became the first female head of the violent crimes unit at Gangnam Police Station.

As a detective, Park Mi-ok was seasoned. She caught a pickpocket red-handed with meticulous care. Leaning on the suspect’s shoulder, she caught the moment the scapula (shoulder blade) moved and subdued him in an instant. She safely returned the wallet to the victim, who hadn’t even realized it was stolen. She recalled, "Detectives often receive the spotlight when violent or heinous crimes make headlines, but what gives detectives pride in their work are moments like these. Even if it’s a small case that doesn’t make the news, we feel rewarded when we prevent citizens from suffering."

Park Mi-ok also had an exceptional intuition. She often had candid conversations with those arrested, treating them as humans before criminals. One day, during a conversation with a thief, she noticed something strange. He avoided talking about love. The man in his mid-thirties had the sensibility of a child not yet fully grown. Curious, Park Mi-ok conducted a DNA test and uncovered that he had committed a sexual crime against an elementary school student five years earlier. She does not boast about this achievement. Although the case was solved through honest conversation, she regrets not being able to continue the dialogue afterward. She feels sorry for not showing the minimum courtesy.

In 1990, during his service in the Traffic Patrol Unit, he is posing at the Traffic Patrol Unit garage in Majang-dong, Seoul.
[Photo by Iyagijangsu]

For Park Mi-ok, criminals are humans before they are villains. At one time, she expressed the pride of being a detective as "knowing the taste of handcuffs." But as her long career accumulated, her perspective changed. She says, "While chasing crimes and studying criminals, I realized that countless situations are intertwined in every case that cannot be easily judged or condemned." She adds, "I began to understand that it is difficult to harshly criticize or hate someone based on my personal feelings and standards."

One drug offender’s story adds to this sense of pity. After barely persuading his parents who opposed his marriage, on the day he got their approval, his lover was murdered, and he was suspected as a prime suspect. Unable to bear the anguish during police investigation, he turned to drugs. This background led Park Mi-ok to see the offender not as a mere criminal but as a person still struggling. This is not a call to reduce punishment by considering circumstances but a voice against viewing someone as purely ‘evil.’ She explains, "The skill and experience of a detective is, above all, detailed love for people. If you only feel accomplishment in catching criminals without affection, you are not a detective but a hunter."

Having regarded being a detective as her calling, she took early retirement a few years before her mandatory retirement and settled in Jeju Island. She set up a bookstore in one corner of her home and welcomes visitors. She says, "Having lived a time when my dream became my work to the fullest, now I want to live a time when life becomes play. I want to meet people before they become the scene and live one more good life with them."

The first thing Park Mi-ok did in that space was to write herself down. She tried to wash away the scars accumulated over 30 years by recording the people and hopes she saw at crime scenes, especially those who cling to hope. This book is the result.

Detective Park Mi-ok | Written by Park Mi-ok | Iyagi Jangsu | 300 pages | 16,800 KRW