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Court sentences man to life for double murder of ex-girlfriend, new boyfriend

Published: 13 Nov. 2025, 17:10

The Suwon District Court’s Yeoju branch in Gyeonggi is pictured in this undated file photo. [JOONGANG ILBO]

A local court sentenced a man to life in prison for killing his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend after he refused to accept their breakup.

The Yeoju branch of the Suwon District Court’s criminal division sentenced the man, who was indicted on charges including murder, and ordered him to wear an electronic tracking device for 20 years, according to legal sources on Thursday.

The court said the man “entered the victim’s home with a weapon, attacked her vital areas without hesitation and also killed her boyfriend, whom he had never met.”

The ruling added that the man had “researched vital areas, looked up tools and methods to commit the crime and carried out the attacks after planning them thoroughly.”

"Yet the defendant shows no sense of responsibility or remorse and denies the charges with excuses," the court noted.

The judge stated that based on the circumstances and sentencing considerations, the man should “spend the rest of his life in prison with a mindset of repentance and atonement,” imposing life imprisonment as the heaviest sentence after the death penalty.

Prosecutors charged the man with fatally stabbing his former girlfriend and her boyfriend at her residence in Icheon, Gyeonggi, on May 4.

The man reportedly confessed the killing to his family on the day of the incident and turned himself in at a police station, but later denied the charges during questioning and in court, claiming he acted in self-defense.

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 JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]