More than 200,000 people demand death penalty for Jeju murder suspect

Police escort Koh Yu-jeong to the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office on Jeju Island, June 12. Korea Times file

By Jung Min-ho

More than 200,000 people have demanded the death penalty for Koh Yu-jeong, who admitted murdering her ex-husband on Jeju Island last month.

As of Monday afternoon, more than 210,000 people had signed a petition urging judges to sentence Koh, 36, to the maximum penalty allowable.

“I want a death penalty. Even life imprisonment would be lenient for her,” a brother of the victim, surnamed Kang, 36, wrote on the petition posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website on June 7.

“I hope the court will show that our justice system works for victims, not criminals … I have not had a full night's sleep since the incident. I don't really feel hunger. I have searched for his body in steams and forests because I could not stand it if I didn't do anything.”

Koh was arrested on June 4 on charges of murdering Kang at a pension in a remote town on the island, May 25, the day she allowed him to meet their son for the first time since the two divorced two years ago. She took custody of the son, who was then two years old.

According to police, Kang loved and wanted to see their son, but she refused his request for no clear reason, prompting him to seek court permission, which was eventually granted.

The three had a day out at a theme park and went to the pension, where police believe she killed him with a knife as planned and dismembered his body before discarding the parts in the sea and other places.