[EPN NPinow reporter Seo Hye-bin] The SBS program Kkokkomu spotlights the 1999 Pyeongtaek disappearance of an 18-year-old woman surnamed Song — the case that inspired Solbi’s song “Find.”
SBS’s program Tales of the Day (Kkokkomu) will air a special episode, “Finding Long-Term Missing Children 2 — We Are Looking for Her,” at 10:20 p.m. on May 7. Singers Jo Jazz, actress Kim Hye-eun, and Bell of Kiss of Life appear as listeners on the episode.
The episode retraces how, in 1999, an 18-year-old woman surnamed Song disappeared from a bus stop in Pyeongtaek. After getting off the last bus and heading home, she vanished without a trace. Her father spent years traveling nationwide, hanging banners and handing out flyers in an effort to find her.
The program also reveals that Solbi’s song “Find” was inspired by this case. The lyric “계절이 바뀌어 가도 너는 없고 네 사진만 있는데” expresses a father’s desperate longing as he searches for his missing daughter.
Solbi said, “When I think of the father, I picture a fluorescent vest. I was struck by the image of him always wearing bright clothing when he hung banners on the highway so they would be seen. He seemed utterly desperate. I wrote the lyrics for ‘Find’ hoping I could share even a small part of his sorrow.”
According to reports, the father drove roughly 1,080,000 km (about 671,000 miles) over 25 years, put up 3,700 banners, and distributed 4.5 million flyers while searching for his daughter. When the program revealed his devotion and the guilt he has carried since her disappearance, the studio was moved to tears.
Bell broke down in tears, saying, “It’s heartbreaking that he vowed he would rather die than not see his daughter’s face again.” Kim Hye-eun sobbed, “I feel like I would have done the same.”
The broadcast also covers a related case: three years after Song went missing, a woman surnamed Choi who alighted at the same bus stop was later found as a decomposed body in a nearby field.
As part of Family Month, Kkokkomu is running a two-part project titled “Finding Long-Term Missing Children.” The show has also launched a campaign aimed at reuniting 1,192 long-term missing children with their families.
The production team spent the past six months using the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) AI and Robotics Institute’s latest generative AI age-progression technology to create videos estimating the current appearances of long-term missing children.
Twenty-six public figures lent their voices to the project, including Choi Kwang-il, Kim Na-young, STAYC’s Seeun, Han Ji-hye, Shin So-yul, At Heart’s Arin, Son Dam-bi, Lucy’s Shin Ye-chan, Lee Guk-ju, Choi Jin-hyuk, Billy Tsuki, Go Woo-rim, fromis_9’s Song Ha-young, Park Hyo-joo, Yoon Nam-no, Kim Yu-mi, The Boyz’s Younghoon, Yoon Seong-bin, Kim Jin-su, Kim Kwang-hyun, Pyo Chang-won, Lee Sang-min, Solbi, Jang Do-yeon, Jang Hyun-sung, and Jang Seong-kyu.
The program’s national campaign videos for “Finding Long-Term Missing Children” will be available alongside the broadcast on SBS channels and SBS NOW through May 25.
Kkokkomu airs every Thursday at 10:20 p.m. on SBS.
Photo=SBS
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