7 more Korean true crime cases that will live rent free in your head
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- SARAH KIM
- [email protected]
![[GETTY IMAGES]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/356351f1-265c-4e34-b25e-3e8bc36ee365.jpg)
[GETTY IMAGES]
![Kang Ho-sun stares at a camera during excavation work in February 2009. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/98845f20-467a-496c-80e8-1c4d181d4742.jpg)
Kang Ho-sun stares at a camera during excavation work in February 2009. [YONHAP]
He was handsome, charming and likable. And he lived a dual life. A look into Kang Ho-sun, a serial killer who killed 10 women between 2005 and 2008 and has often been called Korea's Ted Bundy.
![A poster released by police in search of two missing elementary school students, Woo Ye-seul and Lee Hye-jin. [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/0c31cb38-a783-47f4-a1f9-81c880f66840.jpg)
A poster released by police in search of two missing elementary school students, Woo Ye-seul and Lee Hye-jin. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
On Christmas Day in 2007, 8-year-old Woo Ye-seul and 10-year-old Lee Hye-jin, two neighborhood friends from Anyang, Gyeonggi, left church after service to buy gifts for their families. They were never seen alive again. The discovery of their dismembered bodies later led police to Jeong Seong-hyeon, 38, a computer repairman who lived in the same neighborhood.
![A body inside two rice burlap sacks is seen next to a garbage cart in an outdoor parking space in Sinjeong-dong in western Seoul in June 2005. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/6569fe40-70e8-4437-8c50-afada0a756a8.jpg)
A body inside two rice burlap sacks is seen next to a garbage cart in an outdoor parking space in Sinjeong-dong in western Seoul in June 2005. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]
In November 2025, police said they had finally identified the perpetrator in a series of murders Sinjeong-dong in western Seoul in 2005, solving a 20-year-old cold case through advancements in DNA-tracing technology. However, this also proved that the often linked “Yeopgi Tokki,” or “bizarre bunny” kidnapping of 2005 remains unsolved to this day.
![Wedding footage of Choi Sung-hee, left, and Jeon Min-geun from November 2015, which aired on the Korean investigative program ″Unanswered Questions″ after their disappearance in May 2016 [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/ba95aff2-6a89-410e-b34a-616a938c97e1.jpg)
Wedding footage of Choi Sung-hee, left, and Jeon Min-geun from November 2015, which aired on the Korean investigative program ″Unanswered Questions″ after their disappearance in May 2016 [SCREEN CAPTURE]
In May 2016, newlyweds Choi Sung-hee, a 33-year-old stage actress, and Jeon Min-geun, a 34-year-old restaurateur, returned hours apart to their high-rise apartment in Busan. CCTV footage of their return was the last confirmed trace of either of them before they vanished into thin air.
![Park Chorong Chorong Bit-nari, 8, who was kidnapped and killed in 1997 [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/44a7471c-2308-44f9-9e38-ed20f625bdb6.jpg)
Park Chorong Chorong Bit-nari, 8, who was kidnapped and killed in 1997 [SCREEN CAPTURE]
Park Chorong Chorong Bitnari, 8, went missing on Aug. 30, 1997, in Seocho District, an affluent neighborhood in southern Seoul. Why did Jeon Hyeon-ju, a 28-year-old pregnant woman, kidnap the second grade child?
![The Chijon Family gang members are photographed in front of their weapons in September 1994. [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/11787c4f-d1b6-4821-b09a-dd3be8bbfb03.jpg)
The Chijon Family gang members are photographed in front of their weapons in September 1994. [JOONGANG ILBO]
On Sept. 15, 1994, a 27-year-old woman quietly walked out of a hospital in South Jeolla. She later went to Seoul Seocho Police Station and reported what she had undergone — eight days of rape, murder and cannibalism by a gang of six young men, led by 26-year-old Kim Ki-hwan, known as the Chijon Family.
![Police arrest and transfer Jang Jae-jin to a police station on May 20, 2014, on suspicion of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents. [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/02/17/3f5c08e7-1f5b-4860-94d1-a8e206855d80.jpg)
Police arrest and transfer Jang Jae-jin to a police station on May 20, 2014, on suspicion of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents. [JOONGANG ILBO]
A middle-aged married couple was killed in their apartment in Daegu on May 19, 2014, by a purported plumber. The disguised plumber turned out to be their daughter’s abusive ex-boyfriend, Jang Jae-jin, a 25-year-old university student.
Check out seven more true crime stories.
BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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