A man in his 40s who killed his girlfriend and kept her body in a kimchi refrigerator for nearly a year has received a lengthy prison sentence that is now final.
The first division of the Supreme Court, with Justice Shin Sook-hee as the presiding judge, recently upheld a lower court ruling sentencing a 41-year-old man surnamed A to 30 years in prison on charges of murder, disposal of a body and fraud using a computer, legal sources said on the 23rd.
A was indicted on charges of strangling his girlfriend, identified only as B, whom he had dated for four years, at a low-rise multi-unit home in Jochon-dong, Gunsan, Jeonbuk State, on Oct. 20, 2024, and disposing of her body in a kimchi refrigerator. He also faces charges of taking out about 88 million won ($63,000) in loans under the dead woman's name and spending the money on living expenses.
Even after the killing, A used the victim's mobile phone to exchange messages with her family, making it appear that B was still alive.
Both the trial court and the appeals court sentenced A to 30 years in prison. The appeals court said the defendant's conduct was extremely grave, noting that he left the body in the refrigerator for 11 months after killing the victim and acted as though she were still alive.
The Supreme Court also upheld the lower court's judgment. The court said that, considering the various circumstances relevant to sentencing — including the defendant's age, character, environment, relationship with the victims, motive, means and outcome of the crime, and his conduct after the offense — it could not find that maintaining the 30-year sentence was grossly unjust.
