An Army officer was found dead on Sunday after he had been missing for more than a month, officials said.

Park Jin-woong, a 25-year-old second lieutenant, was found to have apparently hanged himself from a tree while still in his uniform on a hill about 1 kilometer from his unit in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province. The border town is about 90 kilometers northeast of Seoul.

Park, who had been a platoon leader, disappeared at around 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 29 before he was scheduled to begin search and ambush operations with his soldiers.

“After hearing the weather forecast that we’d have a lot of snow tonight, about a dozen soldiers went out to the hill for a look,” an official at the unit said. “We’ve had some warm days of late and some rain had melted much of the snow there.”

Leaders at Park’s unit presumed the officer had deserted the base, but his family had said Park may have been involved in an accident while on duty. (Yonhap News)