Trying to Hide Relationship... Military Officer Yang Gwang-jun Arrested and Indicted for Killing Female Military Civilian Employee

Yang Gwang-jun, Indicted and Detained on Charges of Murder and Corpse Desecration

Active-duty military officer Yang Gwang-jun (38), who killed a female civilian employee he worked with and disposed of her body in the Bukhan River in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, has been brought to trial while in custody.

According to Yonhap News on the 28th, the Criminal Division 1 of Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Oh Se-moon) has indicted Yang Gwang-jun on charges of murder, corpse mutilation, and corpse concealment. Yang is accused of killing Ms. A (33) after a quarrel in his vehicle in the unit parking lot around 3 p.m. on the 25th of last month, mutilating the body, and then disposing of it in the Bukhan River in Hwacheon around 9:40 p.m. the following day.

Yang Gwang-jun leaving Chuncheon Police Station on the 4th for a police investigation. Photo by Yonhap News

Yang Gwang-jun is a lieutenant colonel (jin) assigned to the Cyber Operations Command of the Republic of Korea Army located in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. He was transferred to a subordinate unit in Songpa-gu, Seoul on October 28. Ms. A was a fixed-term civilian employee working in the same unit. Investigation revealed that on the morning of the crime, Yang and Ms. A, who were in a romantic relationship, had a quarrel while carpooling to work. Yang committed the crime to prevent their relationship from being exposed. Unlike Yang, who was already married with a family, Ms. A was unmarried.

After the crime, Yang showed meticulousness by sending messages from the victim’s phone to family, acquaintances, and workplace to conceal the fact that the victim had been murdered. When police involved a profiler (criminal analyst) in the investigation to analyze criminal behavior, it was found that the corpse mutilation and concealment were carried out intelligently, and there was intent to kill, indicating some characteristics of a planned crime.

The prosecution stated that it considers Yang’s crime extremely serious and will do its utmost to maintain the prosecution so that a severe sentence can be imposed. Regarding the victim’s family, efforts are being made to facilitate recovery through the One-Stop Solution Center for Crime Victims, including payment of crime victim relief funds and psychological treatment support.