Episode 150:
Korea’s Most Unthinkable Murder, What happened in the Gym?
At 9 a.m. on December 31, 2021, paramedics rushed to a children's sports center on the second floor of a building in Seoul's Seodaemun district. The center's 40-year-old director, Han Jeong-seok, had called to say that he and an employee had been drinking the night before and fallen asleep there, and that the employee was now cold and stiff. On the gym floor lay 26-year-old instructor Jae-hyeong Ko, naked from the waist down under a padded jacket. His body was covered in bruises, many of them in parallel lines like railroad tracks, the mark left by a hard blow from a rod. Dried blood ran from his buttocks to his thighs. Five exercise rods and a vacuum cleaner pipe sat in a corner.
Han was arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault resulting in death. Then the autopsy came back, and the charge became murder. Jae-hyeong had not died from the beating. A 70-centimeter exercise rod had been forced into his body through the anus with enough force to pierce his rectum, his liver, and his heart. Han said he remembered nothing. What happened that night was pieced together from the center's own security cameras, police dispatch records, and witness statements.
A Year-End Party, Then an Attack on Camera
At 5 p.m. on December 30, four people sat down for a small year-end party at the center: Han, Jae-hyeong, and two female employees. Large gatherings were banned under COVID rules, so they stayed in, as they did once or twice a month. Between them they went through six bottles of soju and 48 cans of beer. Around 9:30 p.m. the party broke up, and Jae-hyeong tried to call a designated driver to take him home in his own car. With every bar in the country closing at 9 p.m., drivers were nearly impossible to find, and after twenty minutes he gave up and went back inside with Han, who bought more soju. At 10:54 p.m., Jae-hyeong sent his family's group chat a short message: "I'm leaving." It was the last they heard from him. He did reach a driver this time, but he was too drunk to explain where he was, and the driver searched for thirty minutes before leaving. Han could be heard beside him, swearing at him to say where his house was. The two kept drinking. At 12:48 a.m., the cameras show Han suddenly choking Jae-hyeong, climbing on top of him, and punching him. He beat him with a vacuum cleaner pipe nearly three feet long, stripped off all of his clothes, and went on beating him with an exercise rod for more than an hour.
Six Officers and a "Sleeping" Employee
At 2:10 a.m., still holding the rod, Han called the police three times in a row, saying a pervert was there and was beating him up. After the calls he turned Jae-hyeong over, pinned him down, and inflicted the injury that killed him. When he heard the police arriving, he pulled out the rod, wiped off the blood, and tossed it aside. Six officers walked into a silent gym. Han now said he couldn't remember anything, refused to let them see the security footage, and told them he would come to the station later. As they turned to leave, they noticed a naked man on the floor. Han stepped in front of them, said it was an employee who had passed out drunk, and stroked the man's hair. The officers checked his pulse, found one, covered him with a jacket, and left. Jae-hyeong was bleeding internally and died alone on the floor.
A Boss Who Could Not Be Challenged
Jae-hyeong had worked at the center for three years. He was known as kind and diligent, and children crowded around him after class asking him to keep playing. Han, a father of three, told his staff that the goal was not teaching children but running the business, and employees said he had once been sued for paying below minimum wage. He flattered people above him, treated those below him badly, and berated and hit staff when he drank. He and Jae-hyeong had argued over how the center was run. Once the case became national news, Han changed his story and said he had only slapped Jae-hyeong a few times to stop him from driving drunk, submitting the dashcam from Jae-hyeong's car as proof. The recording captured Han hurling insults and threats while Jae-hyeong sat silent, and the driver had been called nearly two hours before the assault began. Han has never explained why he did it. Experts who reviewed the case said an act like the one that killed Jae-hyeong is meant to humiliate and force total submission, which fits a boss who felt his authority had been challenged, but that reading remains a theory.
Final Thoughts
At trial, which began in June 2022, Han's lawyers admitted the assault but denied murder, arguing that Jae-hyeong died because the police response had been inadequate, even though it was Han who had lied to those officers. He then said he had blacked out from drinking, and that a smoking-cessation drug he took that night had made him aggressive. The court rejected all of it. A forensic expert who reviewed the case said the rod could not have traveled that far into a body without overwhelming force and a clear intent to kill. Han was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with the court counting in his favor that he had been the one to call the police. First he couldn't remember, then it was the victim's fault, then the alcohol, then the medication, then the police. A man who truly remembered nothing would have had little reason to keep finding new explanations.
Six officers stood over the victim while he was still alive, checked his pulse, covered him with a jacket, and left because his boss said he was sleeping off the alcohol. What do you think should be the minimum an officer has to do before walking away from an unconscious, undressed person at a scene they were called to for an assault?
WE DOCUMENT.
YOU DECIDE.
Our interpretation is only one possible perspective.
