South Korean man sentenced to 40 years in prison for stalking woman

SEOUL: A South Korean court sentenced a man to 40 years in prison on Tuesday for murder of a woman he stalked for years, in a high-profile case that prompted calls for legal reform.

Seoul's Central District Court found 31-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan guilty of murder of a former colleague in revenge after the victim reported him to the police for stalking.

The court found that Jeon had threatened the woman on more than 300 separate occasions but he was never detained despite her repeated complaints. On Sep 14 last year, a day before Jeon was due to be sentenced for stalking the woman, he stabbed her to death in a public restroom at a subway station in central Seoul.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the defendant's testimony showed that he was determined to murder the victim unless she agreed to settle the stalking charge.

The defendant forced her to suffer stalking and committed a revenge crime, instead of reflecting on his misdeeds, despite the victim's wish to cut ties. South Korea's president Yoon Suk-yeol, the country's former top prosecutor, called for the justice ministry to improve laws on stalking to protect the victims and make sure they don't happen again. Prosecutors in the case argued that Jeon could commit crimes like murder in the future because of his egocentrism when he feels anger against others, according to the JoongAng Daily newspaper.

The defendant's young age meant that he could still reflect and atone for his crimes, according to the court.

In his final court testimony, Jeon apologised to the victim's family for the pain. Failure to take Jeon into custody after the victim's repeated complaints sparked widespread shock and alarm in South Korea and prompted enraged demands for officials to deal with such cases more strictly.

Jeon told investigators he had been angered by the legal problems his victim had caused him. He had been fired from his job at the Seoul Metro -- where the woman also worked -- after she first reported him for stalking.

Jeon was already in jail before he was handed a murder sentence on Tuesday, having previously been handed nine years for stalking. The sentences will be served consecutively.