Gwangju murder suspect intended to sexually assault victim, prosecutors say

Jang Yun-gi, the man accused of killing a high school girl whom he did not know in Gwangju, originally intended to sexually assault the victim, prosecutors said.

The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Jang under detention on Tuesday on charges of murder committed in the course of rape  in violation of  the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.

After a supplementary investigation, prosecutors concluded that Jang had planned to sexually assault the victim before killing her.

Under Korean law, the minimum sentence for murder is five years in prison. However, the charge of murder committed in the course of rape is punishable only by death or life imprisonment.

Jang was sent to trial for allegedly killing the student in Gwangsan District, Gwangju, at around 12:10 a.m. on May 5.

He allegedly subdued the victim from behind and attempted to drag her toward his vehicle. Prosecutors said this method resembled that of a previous sexual assault that Jang committed against a Vietnamese woman who had worked with him at a part-time job.

Prosecutors also included charges related to the attack on the Vietnamese woman, including injury committed in the course of rape, preparation for murder, unlawful confinement and violating the Act on Punishment of Crime of Stalking.

Jang claimed during an earlier police investigation in May that the crime had been “spontaneous,” saying, “Life was no fun anymore, so I had been thinking about suicide before committing the crime. I wanted to take someone with me.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]