Police have come under fire over their response to an emergency phone call from a woman who had been kidnapped and was murdered shortly afterward.

National Police Agency Commissioner-General Cho Hyun-oh offered a public apology and promised to tighten monitoring of the police hotline, 112.

“I deeply regret what happened during the 112 Call Center’s handling the rape-murder case in Suwon on April 1. We will have a major overhaul of the 112 report system,” he said to police officials nationwide on Friday.

Cho’s remarks came in response to public outrage over the police response to the call by the 28-year-old woman surnamed Kwak, who was murdered at a house in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

Kwak had been on her way home from work when she was kidnapped by 42-year-old Korean-Chinese Wu Won-chun. While in Wu’s home, Kwak managed to lock herself in a room and called the police hotline for help sometime after 10:30 p.m.

As per the call transcript revealed Friday, the victim described in the 432-second phone call how she had been abducted to a house near Jidong Elementary school and that she was had been raped. There followed the sound of Kwak pleading for mercy, indicating that she had been caught. The call was then disconnected.

Wu was finally caught at around 11 a.m. the following day. He had dismembered Kwak’s body and was stuffing the parts into a plastic bag. He said that Kwak’s swearing at him when they bumped into each other on the street infuriated him and drove him to murder.

The 112 agent’s handling of Kwak’s call also drew criticism. Rather than following the field manual of securing the exact location of the crime, the agent focused on whether Kwak had been raped and by whom.

The agent also failed to deliver the correct information to the police ― including that the crime was taking place indoors and near an elementary school.

“Had the full information been delivered on time, police might have saved Kwak,” said a police observer.

The bereaved family members of Kwak said they will sue the government for mismanagement of a criminal case.

“Had the police given more attention to our daughter’s words and knocked on every door of the neighborhood right after the report, she might be alive,” they told a local daily.

The police administration is also suspected of trying to conceal the fact that not enough manpower was dispatched to search for Kwak.

“What happened to Kwak is a disaster. But at a certain point, it was out of our hands,” a police officer said.

The NPA suspended the chief of the Suwon Jungbu Police Station on Friday. The authorities also decided to place experienced officers at the 112 hotline so that all reports can be handled in real time.

“We will investigate the case thoroughly and discipline those responsible,” Cho said.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)