Life Sentence Proposed for Yang Gwang-jun in 'Killing and Abandoning Body of Military Civil Servant' Case... Victim's Mother Pleads "Please Ensure No Injustice"

Prosecution: "Searched for forged license plates before the murder... A premeditated crime"

Yang Gwang-jun disclosed as personal information. Photo by Gangwon Police Agency

The prosecution has demanded a life sentence for military officer Yang Gwang-jun (39), who killed a female civilian employee with whom he was in an intimate relationship, dismembered her body, and abandoned it.

On the 6th, at the Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 2 (Presiding Judge Kim Seong-rae), during the sentencing hearing for Yang Gwang-jun on charges of murder, corpse mutilation, and corpse concealment, the prosecution requested the court to sentence Yang to life imprisonment.

The prosecution emphasized that Yang Gwang-jun’s crime was premeditated. They stated, "Although the defendant confessed to killing the victim, he claims it was a spontaneous act. The defendant searched for forged vehicle license plates before the murder, and on the day of the incident, it was a shortened workday designated by the unit, with most employees having left by around 4 p.m."

At the hearing, the victim’s mother, given the opportunity to speak, shed tears saying, "I don’t understand why my daughter died." She added, "I heard that he (Yang Gwang-jun) also has children. If so, how would he feel if his own child experienced what our child went through?" She continued, "(Since the incident) everything has stopped and is dying. Please make sure our child does not suffer injustice in this court."

Yang Gwang-jun repeatedly bowed his head toward the mother, saying, "I am sorry."

Yang Gwang-jun is accused of strangling Ms. A (33) to death during an argument inside his vehicle in the unit’s parking lot around 3 p.m. on October 25 last year, dismembering the body, and abandoning it in the Bukhan River in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, around 9:40 p.m. the following day.

Yang Gwang-jun was a lieutenant colonel (promoted) assigned to the Cyber Operations Command of the Republic of Korea Army in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, and 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.

Investigations revealed that on the morning of the crime, Yang Gwang-jun and Ms. A, who were in a romantic relationship, had a quarrel while carpooling to work. To prevent their relationship from being exposed, he committed the crime. Yang was already married with a family, while Ms. A was unmarried.

Yang Gwang-jun showed meticulousness by sending messages from the victim’s phone to family, acquaintances, and workplace contacts to conceal the fact that the victim had been murdered.

After the incident, Yang Gwang-jun was dismissed from the military by disciplinary action.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for the 20th.