Detective who cracked vicious 1990s Korean murder ring dies at 76
Ko Byung-cheon, detective who led the arrest of the Jijon gang members, poses in this Oct. 12, 2007 photo. Korea Times file
Ko Byung-cheon, the detective who led the arrest of a seven-member gang behind a string of brutal murders that shocked Korea in the early 1990s, died last month. He was 76.
The cause and location of his death were not disclosed.
Born in 1949 in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Ko began his police career in 1976. He rose to national prominence in 1994 for leading the arrest of the Jijon gang, whose crimes included murder, cannibalism and the construction of a private incinerator to dispose of victims’ bodies.
One of the most gruesome criminal cases in modern Korean history traces back to July 1993, when a group of men who met through gambling formed a gang led by ringleader Kim Gi-hwan.
The gang members were mostly young men in their early 20s, raised in poverty and with little access to formal education. Their crimes were fueled by a deep resentment toward society — particularly its wealthy elite.
The gang devised a set of rules that reflected their animosity toward the wealthy, adopting slogans such as “Curse the rich” and “Extort 1 billion won” — roughly $1.76 million today. They conducted mock killings, subjected themselves to grueling training and circulated Japanese yakuza novels as inspiration.
Between July 1993 and September 1994, the gang murdered five victims — even resorting to cannibalism. After his arrest, member Kim Hyun-yang said eating human flesh was “to abandon our humanity and become stronger.” At their hideout in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province, they also built a cremation facility to burn the victims’ bodies.
Kim Hyun-yang, center, a member of the Jijon gang, speaks to reporters after his arrest on Sept. 21, 1994.
Captured from Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation news.
After their arrest, Ko dubbed them the Jijon gang — a term that originally meant “supremely noble.” The name was inspired by the Korean title of the 1989 Hong Kong film, “Casino Raiders,” a favorite of the ringleader of the gang. During training sessions, the gang members wore headbands emblazoned with the word “Jijon” across their foreheads.
The group’s crimes were revealed after a 27-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Lee, made a dramatic escape on Sep. 16, 1994.
The gang kept Lee alive, moving her from place to place, after one member reportedly developed feelings for her. Seizing an opportunity, she escaped from South Jeolla Province and fled all the way to Seoul.
Around 3 a.m. on Sept. 16, 1994, Lee stumbled into Seocho Police Station in a dazed, unstable state. When she claimed there were gang members who had dismembered bodies and eaten human flesh, Ko’s first reaction was to check her wrists, suspecting she might be a drug addict, because the story was too bizarre to believe.
The Jijon gang members walk with their hands bound in ropes during a crime scene reenactment on Sept. 21, 1994. Korea Times file.
After realizing Lee was telling the truth, Ko and six detectives — armed with steel pipes and handguns — raided the gang’s hideout in South Jeolla Province. Ko first apprehended a member who had ventured out alone at dawn to buy groceries, then staged a car accident to draw out the remaining gang members one by one.
After their arrest, the gang members shocked the public with remarks like, “We regret not killing more.” Six members were sentenced to death and executed in November 1995.
The only member spared was Lee Kyung-sook, who joined the group just two days before their arrest and did not personally commit any murders. She received a three-year sentence, suspended for four years.
During the trial, several members wrote letters to Ko, thanking him for treating them with dignity. In a later interview, Ko emphasized that their crimes were inexcusable, but argued they were not psychopaths — just individuals who had come to hate the world after growing up in absolute poverty.
“During the investigation, we once gave them Chinese-style fried rice,” Ko recalled. “Their eyes widened — they said it was the first time they’d ever tasted anything like it. They cleaned their plates and kept saying they didn’t know food like that even existed.”
After retiring in 2009, Ko remained active in the public sphere. In 2015, he earned a doctorate from Kwangwoon University with a dissertation on the Jijon gang. In 2021, he published a nonfiction web novel that featured his own name in the title.