Kim Yong-won

As of February 2022, Kim Yong-won remains on South Korea's death row awaiting execution. At the time, the death of Choi was served as a major inspiration for the draft of a bill which proposed increased funding and focus on childcare centers and providing professional counseling for maltreated children.

In mid-March 2005, Kim was drinking with his 43-year-old sister-in-law Seong, who was living with him at his apartment in Cheongju. The pair then got into an argument, which resulted in Kim beating and later strangling her. Instead of disposing of the body immediately, he left it inside the house for four days while he went out drinking. As Seong's only close associate was Kim himself, no missing persons report was filed. After eventually returning to the house, Kim asked a younger acquaintance from his hometown to help dispose of the body, but he refused and encouraged him to surrender himself instead. Kim did not heed his advice and instead convinced him to remain silent about the murder; he then wrapped Seong's body in a blanket and moved it to an isolated section of the mountains near Cheongwon-gu, where he buried it.

At his trial, the Cheongju District Court took into account Kim's previous prison stints for various violent crimes and how he had not shown any sign of rehabilitation. And so, in September 2005, he was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death. Kim appealed the decision in December to the Daejeon District Court, citing his drinking problems as a mitigating circumstance, but this appeal was promptly dismissed as well. The following year, at his third trial in March 2006, newly appointed Supreme Court justice, Kim Young-ran confirmed the lower courts' ruling, effectively finalizing the death penalty. This was considered a unique decision, as not only was it a much quicker affirmation of a death sentence by the Supreme Court (which usually take a year or more), but also because Justice Kim was an outspoken opponent of capital punishment.

Kim's first supposed crime took place in April 1994. At that time, he was accused of strangling and bludgeoning a man named Ji with a sledgehammer in Seobu, Goesan County, because he had supposedly slandered him. However, Kim steadfastly denied guilt and despite being considered the prime suspect, he was released due to lack of evidence. Shortly afterwards, he would instead be imprisoned for rape and served a 3-year prison sentence, later followed by other convictions.

About eight hours later, police received a report that a murdered woman's body was found at the pub, and immediately began investigating. Upon closer inspection, it was quickly determined that the crime scene had likely been staged to look like a robbery by the perpetrator, whom police suspected might be an acquaintance of the victim. After they started looking into Park's associates, authorities eventually came across Kim, who was known to frequent the establishment. Not long after, they received a tip from the young man Kim had attempted to convince to dispose of Seong's corpse, accusing him of this and the 1994 murder.

Initially, he denied all charges against him, but after being presented with an abundance of evidence, Kim confessed to all three murders. Before doing so, he asked that he be permitted a phone call to his fiancée in China, where he told her to consider him "dead" and that she forget that they ever met. Despite this, he continued to deny the 1994 murder, and as there was insufficient evidence to charge him in that case, Kim was charged with the other three killings.

In addition, Kim was repeatedly imprisoned, with his first conviction for rape, assault and theft dating back to December 1984. He was later kicked out of the Armed Forces for his inability to control his kleptomania, and from 1988 to 2001, he would be repeatedly jailed for a myriad of offences, spending a combined total of 13 years behind bars. In between his prison stints, Kim worked as a driver for a variety of companies, which allowed him to hone his driving skills. Kim would eventually quit around 2005, when he began smuggling Viagra, camphor and ginseng to and from China. In April 2005, he began dating a Korean-Chinese woman and even planned to officially marry her in China in July of that year, but unbeknownst to her, he also dated two mistresses behind her back.

Kim Yong-won (Korean: 김용원; born 1966) is a South Korean serial killer and rapist who killed two women and a child around various cities in North Chungcheong Province from March to June 2005, in addition to being suspected, but never charged with, the 1994 murder of a man during an argument. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the latter crimes, which were compared to the more infamous Yoo Young-chul's murders due to their sheer brutality.

Kim Yong-won was born on a farmhouse in North Chungcheong Province in 1966, the youngest of four children of rural farmers. His early life was marred by violence, as his violent and alcoholic father frequently beat his spouse and children, while Kim's brother, who was nine years his senior, bullied him in turn. Due to these circumstances, he felt no affection towards his family members, and repeatedly claimed that he could not wait to become an adult so he could leave them. Kim eventually dropped out of middle school and started working up until the age of 20, when he finally left the family household. However, his life did not proceed smoothly as the first woman he loved dearly later left him for his best friend, causing him to harbor hostile feelings towards women as a whole. While acquaintances generally described him as a nice and gentle person, they would also note that has very easily angered and would get violent when drunk.