Court increases sentence for Korean husband who poured boiling water on Thai wife
The main building of the Uijeongbu District Court in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province / Korea Times photo by Lim Myeong-su
A Korean man who intentionally poured boiling water on his Thai wife’s face, leaving her with severe burns, received a prison sentence longer than the term sought by prosecutors.
Judge Kim Jun-young of the Uijeongbu District Court on Tuesday sentenced a Korean man in his 40s, identified only as “A,” to three and a half years in prison on charges of special bodily injury.
A was indicted on charges of pouring boiling water from an electric kettle onto the face and neck of his Thai wife, who is in her 30s, while she was asleep at their apartment in Howon-dong on Dec. 3, 2025. He initially claimed that he tripped and spilled the water accidentally, but later admitted to the charge during the trial and appealed for leniency.
“Deliberately pouring boiling water onto his sleeping wife’s face was a violent crime that would be difficult for an ordinary person to comprehend,” Judge Kim said in the ruling, adding that the victim had suffered “considerable physical and psychological trauma.”
The court also pointed to the victim’s vulnerable circumstances at the time of the attack.
“The victim met the defendant in 2021 and married him in 2024, but was unable to obtain a marriage visa due to circumstances attributable to the defendant. She was staying in Korea on temporary status, had limited Korean proficiency and was culturally and socially isolated, leaving her particularly vulnerable when the assault occurred.”
At the final hearing, prosecutors sought a three-year prison term, but the court sentenced A to three and a half years, citing aggravating factors that warranted a harsher punishment.
Judge Kim also noted that the victim had submitted a written statement asking that her husband not be punished, but concluded that it did not reflect her true wishes.
The victim reportedly submitted the statement seeking leniency shortly after receiving medical treatment. In March, however, she filed a separate petition seeking harsher punishment with assistance from an immigrant rights advocacy group.
"The victim appeared to want a divorce, fearing the defendant’s obsessive behavior, but seemed to have mistakenly believed that a divorce would proceed more quickly if he received a lenient sentence," said Judge Kim.
“Considering the defendant’s intentions and the surrounding circumstances, it is difficult to regard the victim’s request that he not be punished as reflecting her genuine wishes,” he added.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.