Thai murder of Korean tourist ends in life, 25, 30-year jail terms

(Graphic by Park Ji-young/The Korea Herald)

The three men convicted of murdering a South Korean tourist in Thailand last year received confirmed sentences of 25 years, 30 years and life imprisonment, after the Supreme Court upheld their punishments on Thursday.

South Korea’s top court affirmed the lower courts’ rulings, finding the defendants guilty of murder during a robbery, abandonment of a body, fraud and attempted extortion. Each defendant will also be required to wear an electronic monitoring anklet for 10 years upon release.

The three Korean nationals abducted a 34-year-old tourist in May 2024, taking him from a nightclub in Bangkok and killing him in a car while traveling toward Pattaya.

They hid his body in a cement-filled barrel and dumped it in a reservoir, then attempted to extort money by sending messages from the victim’s phone to impersonate him.

The men were arrested separately in Cambodia, Vietnam and Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, through international cooperation with local authorities.

Throughout the investigation and trial, the defendants tried to shift blame onto one another. The youngest admitted to being present at the crime scene but denied participating in the killing, leading to the most lenient sentence of 25 years as an accomplice.

All three continued to deny intent to murder, but their appeals were dismissed as both the appellate court and the Supreme Court upheld the original verdicts.