Japanese police arrest Korean suspect over links to grisly murder of Tokyo couple

Japanese police arrested a Korean suspect accused of dismembering the bodies of a Japanese couple, according to Japanese media reports Wednesday.

Two burnt bodies were found on April 16 near a river in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture in Japan. [YONHAP]

Japanese police arrested a Korean suspect accused of dismembering the bodies of a Japanese couple, according to Japanese media reports Wednesday.

Police arrested the Korean suspect, surnamed Kang and in his 20s, at a hotel in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, on Tuesday afternoon.

A Japanese suspect was arrested in Chiba Prefecture by Japanese police on the same day and under the same charge as the Korean suspect, according to media reports.

The two suspects are under suspicion of being involved in the death of the Japanese couple, whose corpses were found burnt on a riverside in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, on April 16.

The couple, both in their 50s, were operating 10 restaurants in Ueno, Tokyo.

The two suspects are alleged to have assaulted the couple in an empty house in Tokyo on April 15, then moved them to Tochigi Prefecture by car.

Japanese broadcaster NHK said that Japanese police confirmed that Kang visited Nasu on the day of the incident, according to surveillance footage.

Japanese police previously arrested two other alleged accomplices, one who requested the two suspects to dispose of the bodies and the other who ordered the disposal to the person who had then involved the two new suspects.

These two were confirmed as Japanese nationals.

The two new suspects reportedly received money for disposing of the bodies from the person who directly requested the orders and lent his car to them.

However, the person who relayed the orders to the suspects arrested on Tuesday claimed that he was also ordered by an individual, who was questioned and said that he, too, received instructions from another individual early last month, according to the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

The news outlet said, “the investigative authorities believe that the suspects, who do not have any acquaintance with the couple, committed the crime at the request of someone else.”

BY KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]