City Hall official stalking murder in Andong, South Korea, in 2022

 On July 5, 2022, at 8:56 a.m., a 44-year-old male civil servant stalked a female civil servant (52) on the second floor of Andong City Hall Parking Tower in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and then killed her using a weapon.

The incident took place in front of the entrance door on the second floor of Andong City Hall Parking Tower in Myeongryun-dong, Andong-si. The perpetrator was a 44-year-old male civil servant who stabbed a 52-year-old female civil servant to death with a weapon ready. The perpetrator continued to stalk and harass the victim for a long time, and the victim was not very concerned because he was a daily active person. However, the perpetrator eventually wielded a weapon against the victim because he did not meet him.

The victim reported to 112 that "someone is threatening with a weapon" in the parking lot. It is also estimated that there were about three to four citizens or employees at the scene, and three men at the scene saw the perpetrator running away with a weapon, and police arrived four minutes after a city hall female employee first found the victim and reported it to the police. However, the victim was severely stabbed in the abdomen and died an hour later.

Immediately after the murder, the perpetrator fled in his Genesis G80 vehicle, but 20 minutes later, at 9:20 a.m., he came to Andong Police Station and turned himself in. The perpetrator is currently pleading guilty to murder, but remains silent about the motive. Police will investigate the perpetrator and apply for an arrest warrant, and Andong City Hall said it plans to investigate the criminal individually with the police.

In the CCTV footage released, the perpetrator, who hid the weapon behind his back, came down from the parked car and blocked the victim from going to work. After arguing with the perpetrator for about a minute, the victim ran toward the door to avoid the perpetrator, but was eventually caught and stabbed. Afterwards, CCTV even showed the perpetrator leaving again. It has been confirmed that the two belong to different departments, and that the perpetrator goes to outside work every day, so there is no encounter with the victim.

The perpetrator has been banned from access by the court as a result of continuous domestic violence, and even on the day of the incident, he was living in a material warehouse in Andong City Hall, not his residence. In addition, it has been confirmed that a divorce suit between the perpetrator and his spouse was in progress. In addition, the perpetrator purchased an expensive car in installments compared to his income, and was on sick leave and on leave until July 14 due to liver disease and high blood pressure.

In an article on the second trial sentence held on March 30, 2023, it was revealed that the suspect and the victim public official had an internal affair in the past.

The prosecution demanded a 29-year prison term at the Andong Branch of the Daegu District Court on September 15, 2022, saying, "CCTV images of parking lots, black box images of vehicles, confiscated murder tools, and text messages sent to victims are recognized as indictments." He also asked the court to complete a violent treatment program, attach location-tracking electronic devices, and be sentenced to seven years of probation.

In the first trial held on Oct. 13, the court sentenced the suspect to 30 years in prison and 15 years with an electronic anklet, which is higher than the prosecution's sentence.

In the second trial held on March 30, 2023, the Daegu High Court's first criminal department (chief judge Jin Sung-chul) sentenced him to 20 years in prison by reducing 30 years in prison. The court said, "Considering the fact that he committed the crime in an unstable state of mind by taking sleeping pills at the time of the crime and turning himself in, it was judged that 30 years in prison at the original trial was too heavy a punishment."