By Kim Jong-chan
A man was arrested along with an alleged hit man he hired to murder his wife. Both suspects have since been charged with murder, prosecutors said Monday.
In a telephone conversation on Sept. 14, the husband advised his wife, a businesswoman, to meet a car repairman, saying that he would help her promote her car rental business.
At the husband’s request, the man, pretending to be a driver, drove a car to the deceased’s rent-a-car office in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, and took her to a parking lot in the third-basement level of a nearby office building.
He then strangled her and buried her body in a hill in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, a police spokesman said.
Next day, the husband, 40, reported to police that his wife, 34, went missing.
During questioning, he said he handed over his troubled rent-a-car business to his wife four years ago. But as the business grew, she wanted to divorce him. Incensed by this, he planned to kill her, the spokesman said. Sales of her business surpass 20 million won per month.
The husband said, “A year ago, my wife told me she wanted to divorce me. I was afraid of losing my child and feared being reduced to a pauper,” according to the police.