경찰민원24 (formerly LOST112): Find a Lost Item in Korea

Police Minwon24 (formerly LOST112) is Korea's national police lost & found portal. Here's how to search it, why one check is never enough, and how to actually get your item back.

Korea's national lost & found is 경찰민원24 (Police Minwon24, formerly LOST112) at minwon24.police.go.kr, run by the police: the same nationwide database LOST112 ran, at a new address since January 2026. It pools found-item reports from police stations, police boxes (지구대) and substations across the country, plus many transit operators, airports and other institutions, into one searchable system.

It is the right place to look. It is rarely the first place to look.

Check where you lost it first

An item handed in at a taxi company, a subway line, an airline, a hotel or a department store usually stays with that operator for days before anyone passes it to the police. While it is there it is not in Police Minwon24 (formerly LOST112) at all — and if it is still with the operator, that is the fastest way to get it back.

Our guides by place list the desk, the phone number and the hours for each.

How to search Police Minwon24 (formerly LOST112)

Go to minwon24.police.go.kr and find the lost-item (유실물) search.

You can use it in your own language. The found-item listings render in multiple languages — the results screen, item names and dates all display in the language you choose, so you do not need Korean to search. Set the language, then search by item category, date range and region.

When you find a match, note the management number (관리번호) on the detail page. It identifies the item and the office holding it, and you will be asked for it at every later step.

Why one search proves nothing

Items appear on a delay of days, not hours. Finds from public places and transport are typically held about seven days before being passed to the district police station or a city lost & found centre — and only then registered. A search the same evening tells you almost nothing.

Searching once and giving up is the most common mistake. Check again over the following days, and then weeks.

Where it is registered is not where you lost it

The location on the record is where the item was handed in, not where you lost it. A bus find is usually logged at the route's terminal or depot rather than the stop you boarded at. A taxi may keep driving for hours, so the item surfaces in a different district. A venue that holds an item before passing it on registers it under the receiving station.

Filter tightly by area and you will miss it. Lead with item type and date, and treat location as a loose hint rather than a rule.

If Korean is the barrier

1330 is Korea's tourist help line, run by the Korea Tourism Organization. It is free, answers 24 hours a day, and offers interpretation in English, Japanese, Chinese and other languages.

Be clear about what it is: 1330 is not a lost & found office. It holds no items and keeps no database. What it does is interpret — it will put a live interpreter on a three-way call with a police station or an operator's lost & found desk — and help you understand what a Korean-language page or notice actually says. For a language wall, that is often exactly enough.

If you find it listed

Finding the entry is not the same as getting the item back. The office holding it will want proof that the item is yours, collection is in person during office hours, and the conversation is usually in Korean. Items are held for a statutory six months; after that, ownership can pass to the finder or to the state.

The full process is in our guide to collecting a found item in Korea.

Station contact details are in our police directory.

If you know where you lost it

Police Minwon24 (formerly LOST112) lists items only after someone has handed them in to the police. If you know the airport, airline or train you left it on, that operator's own lost and found is usually faster:

If the item is listed but you cannot collect it in person — you have left Korea, or the holding office is hours away — it can be released to someone acting for you with written authorization and their own ID, and shipping abroad is arranged by whoever collects it: here's what that takes.

Step by step for the new portal: how to search Police Minwon24.

경찰민원24 (Police Minwon24, formerly LOST112): How to Find a Lost Item in Korea