Police wind down search for missing Korean

The search for a Korean student missing since the beginning of last month will probably be wound down within a few days, say police.

Young Wook Ma, 23, also known as Jack Ma, has not been seen since June 12 when he disappeared from his home in the Auckland suburb of Glenfield.

He had no money or change of clothing and his bank accounts had not been used.

Late last month his father John made an emotional plea for his son to at least contact them and tell them he was safe.

But Senior Constable Wayne Fisher said today neither police nor the family had heard from Mr Ma and there was not much more that could be done to find him.

He said the case would probably be scaled down within a few days.

Mr Fisher said he was holding onto the hope he did not want to be found.

"There are two options. Obviously one is he has come to grief and may never be found, or he is escaping his life and at some point someone will know about it," Mr Fisher said.

He said some family members were coming to terms with the belief he might be dead.

Mr Ma, a computing student at the Waikato Institute of Technology's Newmarket campus in Auckland, was 176cm tall, of medium build, with black hair.

- NZPA