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Man apprehended for allegedly setting fire to ex-girlfriend's home

Published: 08 Apr. 2026, 18:52 Updated: 08 Apr. 2026, 22:16

Siheung Police Precinct [YONHAP]

Police apprehended a man for allegedly setting fire to the home of a former partner after becoming angered by the belief that she was seeing someone else.

The man was taken into custody on Tuesday on charges including trespassing and setting fire to an occupied building, according to the Siheung Police Precinct on Wednesday.

The fire broke out at around 4 a.m. on Saturday in a one-room unit of a five-story villa building in Jeongwang-dong, Siheung, Gyeonggi. His ex-girlfriend was not home at the time and was unharmed.

“There was a fire, and I put it out myself,” the building owner said. The owner called the fire authorities, who arrived to find the entrance door open and the fire already extinguished.

Investigators found minor soot damage on the floor and on the walls inside the unit.

The police investigated with arson in mind, and they secured footage from a security camera showing the suspect entering and exiting the building around the time of the fire. The suspect was able to enter because he had previously been in a relationship with the resident and had access to the lobby’s security passcodes.

“I got mad because I thought my ex-girlfriend was seeing another man,” confessed the suspect during the investigation, according to the police.

Authorities added that the suspect had no prior record of stalking-related crimes and had not been classified as a high-risk individual.

A civic group calls for stronger, more effective measures to prevent stalking and domestic violence in front of the Blue House fountain in Jongno District, central Seoul, on March 17. [YONHAP]

The case comes amid heightened concern over relationship-based crimes — which refers to crimes involving people with a personal relationship, such as former partners — following the murder of a woman in her 20s in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, last month. She was killed by Kim Hoon, a man in his 40s, wearing an electronic ankle monitor who had previously been in a relationship with the victim wearing an electronic ankle monitor.

Concerns have been raised that cases without warning signs, such as this incident, may fall outside existing monitoring systems.

Police conducted a full review of 22,388 relationship-related cases from March 18 to Thursday and classified 1,626 as high risk, placing them under intensive management, police said.

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.
LEE AH-MI [[email protected]]