Last sunset of 2019 from Hwaseong Fortress The bright orange orb of the setting sun silhouettes Seojangdae tower at Hwaseong Fortress for the last time of the year on Dec. 31, 2019. The fortress, located in Suwon, 46 kilometers south of Seoul, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Yonhap)
Asia’s largest global theme park This artist’s impression of the planned Hwaseong International Theme Park provided by Gyeonggi Province on Nov. 21, 2019, shows the general scale of the project. South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, which is pushing to construct the largest theme park in Asia, held a project vision ceremony in Hwaseong, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, that was attended by representatives from regional authorities, the Korea Water Resources Corp. and the finance ministry. (Yonhap)
Via a reader tip comes news that the person suspected of the infamous Hwaseong murder and rapes over two decades ago has confessed:
Lee Chun-jae, the suspect of the serial killings in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, confessed to committing a total of 14 murders and 30 sexual assaults between 1986 and 1994. Yonhap
The prime suspect of the infamous serial killings in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, has confessed to five more murders besides the nine known cases, police said Wednesday. Lee Chun-jae, 56, also said he committed or attempted to commit about 30 sexual assaults that did not involve murder.
Lee was recently identified as the prime suspect of the nine serial killings that took place in and around Hwaseong from 1986 to 1991, after advanced DNA technology linked him with three of the cases. He is currently serving a jail sentence for a separate murder.
Since the identification, the police have questioned him over nine times. Lee first denied the allegations but confessed last week, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.
You can read more at the link, but incredibly for all the rapes and murders he has now confessed to he can not be charged with because the statute of limitations has passed. He will however remain in jail for the murder of his sister-in-law which unknowingly stopped the Hwaseong murders. He raped and murdered his sister in law because she convinced his wife to leave him.
The top story in Korea that is headlining all its news outlets is the announcement that the Hwaseong Serial Killer has been identified after all these years:
This file photo shows a wanted leaflet containing a composite sketch of the suspect for a serial murder case that took place in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, in the 1980s. (Yonhap)
Police may have solved one of the Korea’s most mysterious cold cases: the serial rapes and murders of nine women in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, in the late 1980s.
According to Ban Ki-soo, a chief investigator at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency on Thursday, newly analyzed DNA evidence from three of the nine cases matched the DNA of a 56-year-old convict surnamed Lee currently serving a life sentence in Busan for a different murder he committed in 1994.
This discovery could very well bring a resolution to one of the most notorious serial rape and murder sprees in Korean criminal history, which terrified Korea from 1986 to 1991 and remained unsolved for three decades.
Yet the suspect, who was in his 20s at the time of the killings, can no longer be charged for any of those crimes since the statute of limitations for the last of the murders expired in April 2006. He has denied responsibility for all nine murders, police said.
Lee is serving a life sentence in the Busan Penitentiary for raping and murdering his wife’s sister, aged 20 at his home in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, in January 1994. According to press reports, he is a model prisoner with a taciturn personality who is eligible for parole.
A 10-victim rape and murder spree of the late 1980s and early 1990s terrified the nation — particularly due to the authorities’ inability to find a culprit — and was compared to the so-called Zodiac killings in California in the late 1960s. The killings gave rise to copycat crimes and inspired one of the most iconic blockbusters of Korean cinema, “Memories of Murder.”
You can read more at the link, but here is a video report of the announcement from Arirang News:
The suspect could have likely been identified sooner if the investigators back when the crimes happened did not discard so much evidence such as cigarette butts found at the scene that would have much DNA evidence. Instead modern day forensic scientists using new technology were able to extract DNA from the victim’s clothes that were saved as evidence to make this DNA match.
For those that haven’t I highly recommend watching the Korean movie, Memories of Murder which uses a dramatized account of the investigation to show how incompetent it was and the killer’s impact on Korean society back then.
What I have not been able to find out is if the identified killer was even a suspect during the time of the killings? The police back then had many suspects that they were trying to pin the murder on, so it would be interesting to see if this guy was even on the police’s radar back then.
U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert (C), escorted by Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young (R), looks around the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace in Suwon, west of Seoul, on April 29, 2016. The palace is part of Hwaseong Fortress, which was designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1997. King Jeongjo, the 22nd monarch of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), built the fortress in memory of his late father Sado. (Yonhap)
The Suwon Fortress also known as the Hwaseong Fortress is a must see tourist site for anyone visiting Korea. The impressive fortress walls surround the entire old city of Suwon and are registered UNESCO World Heritage site. The fortress is not only impressive to look at but also features an interesting history.
The idea to build the fortress was first conceived by the Korea’s King Jeongjo (1776-1800). This period of Korean history featured much intrigue within the ruling yangban class which ultimately caused King Jeongjo’s father to be murdered. King Jeongjo felt that creating a new, well fortified capitol would strengthen the monarchy and dillute the power of the yangban class. He chose the city of Suwon just south of Seoul to be his new capitol. He moved the tomb of his father to Suwon and began construction of his great fortress in 1794.
There are a variety of old cannons located along the wall.
The fortress was designed by Jeong Yakyong (1762-1836) who was known nationally as one of Korea’s greatest scholars. He envisioned a fortress that balanced the needs of commerce, the welfare of the people, and military defense. The work force he employed to build the fortress was quite extensive. 642 masons, 335 carpenters, 295 plasterers and 11,820 painters and tilers were used. In total an average of 70,000 laborers were used to work on the fortress every year until completion. Jeong also did something that was unusual for this period, he actually payed his workers for their work instead of conscripting forced laborers to build the fortress.
Large rocks and bricks harden the outside portion of the wall and the interior side of the wall is composed of packed dirt.
When construction was completed, the walls averaged a height of nine meters and featured many watch towers, cannons, secret gates, and other fortifications. The total length of the walls is 5 kilometers long. The fortress was the first construction project in Korea to use advanced technology such as cranes to move dirt and blocks into place. It took a total of over 2 years to build the fortress.
Beautiful Korean artwork.
Over the years more improvements were made to the fortress but even these great walls couldn’t save Korea from the bickering and ineffective leadership of the yangban class that would ultimately lead to the annexation of Korea by Japan nearly a hundred years later. Due to the aftermath of the Japanese colonial period and the Korean War, the walls were heavily damaged. In the 1970’s the Korean government decided to restore the walls to their past glory.
The outer wall that sticks out like a claw around the main entrance gate allows defenders to attack anyone trying to breach the gate from their rear.
Today looking at this great fortress one cannot help but imagine the amount of work that went into creating such a massive project. Though the walls never saw any great climatic battles, they still are impressive to see and good way to spend an afternoon in Korea. To walk around the fortress will take approximately 4 hours. The walk up Paldal mountain is steep so expect to get a good amount of exercise if you choose to walk up the mountain. From the top of Paldal mountain you can get a bird’s eye view of Suwon and the surrounding area.
Path up Paldal Hill.
Secret entrance along the wall.
View of Suwon
My only complaint about the area, if you can call it that, was that I think the city of Suwon can do more with this park. IMHO I think the city should try to give incentives to home owners adjacent to the wall in old Suwon to fix up their houses to look more aesthetic and dare I say more traditionally Korean instead of the many drab buildings adjacent to the fortress now. If the city inside the walls is known as the old city of Suwon shouldn’t it look that way?
Watchtower on top of Paldal Hill.
However, as I said before make sure you check out the Suwon Fortress at least once while here in Korea. The crowds amazingly enough are not very large even on weekends. Reaching Suwon is easy as well; just take the Seoul city subway to Suwon Station and then have a taxi take you to the fortress. It’s that easy. Now getting up mountain Paldal and around the entire fortress, that’s a different story.
