30s North Korean Defector Kills Mother While Intoxicated
Court: "Crime Brutal... Motive Also Deserving of Condemnation"
A man in his 30s, a North Korean defector, who killed his mother while intoxicated during this year's Lunar New Year and even slept next to her, was sentenced to a heavy prison term in the first trial.
According to Yonhap News on the 19th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Uijeongbu District Court Goyang Branch (Chief Judge Kim Hee-soo) sentenced A (33), a North Korean defector charged with killing a direct ascendant, to 20 years in prison. The court also ordered A to wear an electronic location tracking device (electronic anklet) for 10 years. However, the probation order requested by the prosecution was dismissed.
Uijeongbu District Court Goyang Branch / Photo by Yonhap News
A was arrested and indicted on charges of killing his mother in her 50s with a weapon at his apartment in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on the night of February 9, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday. He defected from North Korea with his parents in 2006 when he was 15 years old and had lived in the Seoul metropolitan area for over 20 years. A had no proper job, and it is known that his mother had been solely responsible for their livelihood by working at a restaurant. A’s father passed away due to a chronic illness.
A was released from prison about a month before the crime after serving time for a drunk driving incident. Before the crime, he received a proposal from an acquaintance he met in detention to go to Vietnam together. Believing that killing his only family member, his mother, would allow him to go to Vietnam with a light heart, he committed the crime. A, who was heavily intoxicated at the time, contacted this acquaintance after the crime, informed him of the act, and even sent photos of the scene. The acquaintance, upon seeing this, visited A’s residence and reported it to the police, leading to A’s arrest at the scene.
The court stated, "Taking a person's life is an act that cannot be remedied and must be severely punished," and pointed out, "Especially, killing a parent is an anti-humanitarian and antisocial crime." It added, "There was no circumstance showing that the defendant needed to migrate alone to Vietnam at that time, yet the defendant thought that the victim, his mother, was an obstacle to his emigration and killed her," and concluded, "The motive for the crime is blameworthy."
Furthermore, the court explained the sentencing by saying, "The defendant committed the crime during the recidivism period after being sentenced to imprisonment for another case," and "Considering the high risk of reoffending, the fact that he is unmarried, has no siblings, and both parents are deceased, leaving him without family, there is a risk that the defendant may commit murder again."
Earlier, the prosecution demanded a life sentence for A, stating, "The method of the crime was brutal and unfilial, making severe punishment inevitable."
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