Police are strengthening measures to isolate offenders following a string of stalking and other relationship-based crimes in South Korea.
Hong Seok-ki, commissioner of the National Office of Investigation, said police plan to focus intensively on relationship-based crimes, speaking at a regular briefing held on the 27th at the National Police Agency in Seoul's Seodaemun District. "We will firmly isolate offenders and do everything possible to protect victims," he said.
Police are pushing for revisions to related laws to strengthen sanctions against and isolation of offenders, moving beyond the existing approach centered on victim protection. The aim is to prevent relationship-based crimes from escalating into violent crimes such as murder.
A police official said the agency is discussing legal revisions with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and other relevant agencies, adding that police will work to ensure the legislation is enacted quickly. Police also plan to build a system, in cooperation with the Justice Ministry, that links real-time location data from electronic monitoring devices worn by stalking offenders. Measures are also being prepared to raise the rate at which courts order the attachment of such devices.
Police are conducting a full review of 43,716 cases of relationship-based crimes reported nationwide. As of the 26th, 28,396 cases had been reviewed, or about 65% of the total, according to police. In the process, police sought 203 arrest warrants, 284 detentions and 203 orders for electronic monitoring devices.
A series of relationship-based crimes targeting former partners or spouses has occurred across the country in recent weeks. On the 11th, a man in his 20s killed his mother-in-law and abducted his wife in Seoul's Songpa District. In Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, a man in his 60s stalked a woman in her 40s whom he had previously dated and then killed her with a weapon.