Man turns himself in for killing woman near Mount Seorak 10 days ago

A view of Mount Seorak in Gangwon Province / GettyimagesBank

A man in his 50s has been taken into custody after confessing to the murder of a woman near a popular trail at Mount Seorak in Gangwon Province, police said Thursday.

According to Gangneung Police Station, the suspect turned himself in around midnight on Thursday, saying he had killed a woman in her 60s near the perimeter trail of Mount Seorak National Park in Sokcho, 10 days earlier. He was reportedly intoxicated at the time of the confession.

Officers arrested him on suspicion of murder and later found the woman’s body at 6:58 a.m. near a remote section of the trail, away from nearby roads and footpaths. Police identified the victim as someone with whom the man had previously been involved in a business relationship.

In his statement to police, the man said their business had fallen into difficulty and that the two had traveled around the east coast region, including Gangneung and Sokcho, intending to die by suicide together.

He claimed the woman failed in the attempt, prompting him to kill her before surviving alone.

The woman had been reported missing by her family after failing to return home. Authorities are continuing to investigate the full circumstances and motive behind the incident.

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.