Tag: murder

The three Koreans killed in this murder were actually part of a scheme that defrauded South Koreans of hundreds of thousands of dollars:

Location where the three dead South Koreans were discovered in the Philippines.

A Seoul court on Friday sentenced a South Korean man who shot three compatriots to death in the Philippines last year to 30 years in prison.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted the man, identified only by his last name Kim, of murdering three Koreans — two men and one woman — who were found in a sugar cane field in Bacolor, some 70 kilometers northwest of Manila, on Oct. 11. All three had gunshot wounds to their heads.

He killed the victims following a proposal from another South Korean, surnamed Park, in return for money.

Kim was also convicted of abandoning the bodies and siphoning off 2.4 million won ($2,100) from the victims.

Prosecutors accused Kim of stealing another 720 million won from their account, but the court acquitted him of the charges, citing a lack of evidence.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Over at the Korea Herald they have an article published that details some of South Korea’s most prolific serial killers.  Most I have heard of before, but there was actually a group of serial killers called the Jijon Clique that murdered five people and ate them in 1993 that I had not heard of before:

There was a crime group that systematically murdered people as well.

Kim Ki-hwan, 25 at the time, organized the group dubbed the “Jijon clique” in July, 1993. All in their 20s, they had hated the rich and decided to “act out.”

Their first target was a 23-year-old factory worker, who they raped and killed in 1994. They also set up a makeshift jail and incineration facility in a basement of the leader’s house in South Jeolla Province.

While it all started from their frustration against the rich and the economic polarization in society, their targeted victims were not always wealthy. One of the five people they killed was also one of their members, Song Bong-eun, who tried to secede from the group.

In September, 1994, they kidnapped four people and killed three of them in the most brutal ways. One victim, after being tortured, escaped to report the gang to the police. The six members were finally caught and were executed in November the same year.

In their testimony, one of the members revealed that they had practiced cannibalism, because they “gave up on being human.”  [Korea Herald]

You can read more about South Korea’s past serial killers at the link.  However, one serial killer not mentioned in the article that may also be its most famous is the Hwaseong Serial Killer that has never been caught.  The killings were featured in one of Korea’s most well known crime movies, “Memories of Murder ” which I highly recommend watching for those who haven’t seen it already.

Via a reader tip comes this absolutely horrible murder over in Incheon:

A 17-year-old girl has been arrested for the killing and dismembering of an 8-year-old girl in Incheon. The remains were put into two plastic bags and left on the roof of an apartment building where the suspect lives, the Yeonsu Police Precinct reported Thursday.

The teenager, who dropped out of school and suffers from depression, allegedly committed the act Wednesday afternoon after luring the victim to her apartment in Yeonsu District, western Incheon.

According to police, the victim lived in a different building in the same apartment complex.

The suspect, whose identity is being withheld, met the victim at around 1 p.m. at a playground in the Yeonsu neighborhood. The two had not known each other, according to police. The victim’s friend told investigators the victim asked the suspect if she could borrow her mobile phone to call her mother.

CCTV footage showed the two taking an elevator at around 1 p.m. to go to the suspect’s home. Two hours later, the suspect left the home and later returned. At 4:09 p.m., the suspect left again after changing her clothes. It is believed that the murder took place between 1 and 4 p.m. The suspect’s parents were at work at the time.

Inside the suspect’s home were blood stains and tools that might have been used in the killing. Police declined to go into detail out of respect for the victim’s parents.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This is just a horrible story coming out of Incheon:

A single mother’s twisted love has led to the tragic death of her three-year-old baby who was brutally beaten with a peach tree stick used by shamans for exorcism.

The 26-year-old mother identified by her surname Choi and her mother Shin, 50, have been arrested on charges of child abuse and manslaughter at their home in Incheon, south of Seoul, police said.

Choi and Shin were accused of whipping the whole body of their child with a peach tree stick and a hula-hoop for two days from February 18. After their shamanistic ritual, the baby was left abandoned to starve for three days.

It all started when Choi, who was suffering from depression, was captured by an illusion that her baby was possessed with an evil spirit. On recommendations from a shaman, she performed her own exorcism with a bible and a peach tree stick.  [Aju Daily]

You can read the rest at the link, but it seems pretty weird that a Bible is involved in Shamanistic ritual.

Considering North Korea’s long criminal history it makes you wonder why the Malaysian government had a visa waiver program with North Korea in the first place?:

Malaysia has canceled its visa waiver arrangement with North Korea amid a diplomatic spat over the assassination of the half brother of the North’s leader, a news report said Thursday.

The cancellation will take effect on March 6, after which North Koreans entering Malaysia will be required to obtain a visa, Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted the country’s deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, as saying. He cited national security as the reason.

This marks Malaysia’s first tangible action taken against Pyongyang following the assassination of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13.  [Yonhap]

Here is the other development regarding the Kim Jong-nam murder case:

Malaysia has decided to release and deport Ri Jong-chol, a 47-year-old North Korean suspect, due to a lack of incriminating evidence, AP reported.

Four North Korean suspects are believed to have fled Malaysia on the day of Kim Jong-nam’s death while three others, including Hyon Kwang-song, the second secretary at the North’s embassy in Malaysia, are wanted for questioning.  [Yonhap]

I was curious to why Ri Jong-chol did not flee like the other North Korean agents if he was in fact part of the murder plot.  Considering Malaysian authorities had no evidence to convict him it appears he was not involved.

As if the murder of Kim Jong-nam could not get any more bizarre, now the VX nerve agent wielding assassin Doan Thi Huong has been identified as an aspiring singer who appeared recently on Vietnam’s version of American Idol:

Doan Thi Huong’s site features pouting party pictures including a snap of her wearing a shirt emblazoned ‘LOL’  similar to the one on the fleeing suspect caught on CCTV.

The photos were released amid claims she once starred on the Vietnamese version of Pop Idol.

The 28-year-old worked at a popular party venue, according to Malaysian police who have arrested her over the murder of Kim Jong Nam at a Malaysian airport .

On a rice farm in northern Vietnam, her family said they had hardly heard from her since she left home a decade ago aged just 18.

“At first we doubted it was her when we saw the picture with the ‘LOL’ shirt,” said stepmother Nguyen Thi Vy .

“But when someone bought a clearer picture here, we knew it was our Huong.

“If she committed the crime, she has to suffer, we can’t do anything… but I think she must have been set up by someone.”

Huong’s brother Doan Van Binh said he knew little about his sister’s life after she left the village.

“I encouraged her to study and earn money so that her future would be good,” he said.

“My family is very sad. We all thought she was in a good place.”

Huong posted to Facebook under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her 18-year-old niece, Dinh Thi Quyen.

The last post on a Facebook page – released by the respected AP news agency – is dated February 11 from Kampong Besut, Malaysia.

“I want to sleep more but by your side,” the post reads above a picture of her, eyes closed and wrapped up in bed.  [The UK Sun]

You can read much more about Huong at the link, but here is what Huong looks like when not covered in make up and wearing a LOL shirt:

South Korea blasts news of Kim Jong-nam's murder to North https://t.co/edF4dRCNbl

— South Korea Daily (@SouthKoreaDaily) February 23, 2017

Malaysian Police: NK diplomat Hyon Kwang-song seems to be the mastermind & kept Ambassador Kang Chol in the loop. https://t.co/y3Qlh7kDmv

— Noon in Korea (@NoonInKorea) February 23, 2017

This likely for domestic consumption within North Korea because with all the evidence piled up against North Korea I don’t think anyone outside the country will believe this claim:

After South Korean “conservative media” published reports that he was “poisoned to death by two women agents of the General Reconnaissance Bureau of North Korea,” the Malaysian police “recklessly made it an established fact,” the KCNA said.

It said Malaysia pushed for an autopsy of the body without any prior agreement with the North and its representatives.

“Moreover, the Malaysian side clamored for a second autopsy without publishing the results of the first autopsy,” the KCNA said, claiming “the unjust acts of the Malaysian side are timed to coincide with the anti-DPRK conspiratorial racket launched by the South Korean authorities.”

It claimed that South Korean authorities have shown “excessive responses” to the case and that they openly discussed the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

“This proves that the South Korean authorities have long expected the case since it worked out a scenario for it,” it said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but you have to love the fact that the THAAD issue is even to blame for the murder of Kim Jong-nam.  What else could possibly be blamed on THAAD?

Two large developments in the murder of Kim Jong-nam today.  The first development is that the North Korean embassy has been linked to the murder:

A second secretary at the North Korean Embassy in Malaysia is the latest suspect sought in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, Malaysian police said Wednesday, the strongest proof yet that the communist regime masterminded the plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother.

In their second press briefing since Kim Jong-nam was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on the morning of Feb. 13, police said they were searching for a 44-year-old North Korean diplomat named Hyon Kwang-song, who arrived in Malaysia on Sept. 20, 2016.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

It makes sense that any murder of Kim Jong-nam would have had assistance from the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur.  Malaysia should seriously consider shutting the place down considering the criminal activity conducted there.  The second major development is that Malaysian authorities believe the two women who committed the attack knew what they were doing:

Khalid said the women knew they were handling poisonous materials during the attack, which occurred in a departure area of Kuala Lumpur’s budget airport, and had practiced the attack multiple times.

“We strongly believe it is a planned thing and that they have been trained to do that. This is not just like shooting a movie,” he told reporters.  (………)

The case has perplexed leading forensic toxicologists who study murder by poison. They say the airport attack is one of the most bizarre cases in the books, and question how the two women could walk away unscathed after deploying an agent potent enough to kill Kim Jong Nam before he could even make it to the hospital.

Khalid noted the two women “were warned to take precautions,” and said security camera footage showed them quickly walking to restrooms after the attack to wash their hands.  [Associated Press]

Malaysian authorities have completely ruled out the attack being a prank:

“We’re ruling out the possibility that the women thought the attack was a prank or even that they believed they were shooting a television show,” Khalid Abu Bakar was quoted by The Star, a news outlet in Malaysia, as saying.

“The lady was moving away with her hands toward the bathroom,” said Khalid, according to The New Straits Times, another Malaysian newspaper. “She was very aware that it was toxic and that she needed to wash her hands.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

After watching the security camera footage I was convinced that at least the Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong knew what she was doing considering how violently she attacked Kim Jong-nam with the poisoned cloth.