Frog Boys

The Frog Boys (Korean: 개구리소년) were a group of five South Korean boys who disappeared on March 26, 1991. The boys had gone to nearby Mount Waryong to catch frogs but never returned. Their bodies were found 11 years later. Although it was discovered that they had been murdered, the case has never been solved. The incident was the subject of two films, Come Back, Frog Boys (1992) and Children (2011) and several songs.

The boys

The five boys aged 9 to 13 who disappeared were:

Disappearance and search

March 26, 1991 was a national holiday in South Korea owing to the 1991 local elections; the boys decided to spend the day catching frogs in the streams of Mount Waryong. After they were reported missing, their story became a national sensation. President Roh Tae-woo sent 300,000 police officers to search for the missing boys, with the searches shown live on TV. Several of the boys' parents left their jobs to travel around the country to look for their children. During the search, the police received over 550 false leads. Mount Waryong was searched more than 500 times before the boys were found.