Man kills mother, who he did not believe was his biological mom

The South Korean prosecutors said Monday it has indicted a man in his 30s for killing his own mother in her sleep.

The Daegu District Prosecutors' Office pressed the matricide charges against the suspect, who has intellectual disabilities. He is accused of killing the victim at 4 p.m. on June 10, while she was sleeping at a restaurant she owned in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province.

The suspect told the investigators he committed the crime because of a grudge for his mother repeatedly reprimanding him. He had frequently found himself in trouble while helping out his mother at her restaurant, such as for stealing from the customers.

He fled the scene after the crime, and was caught shortly afterward near Suseong-gu in Daegu.

It was reported that the suspect did not believe the victim to be his biological mother, due to his complicated upbringing. He was adopted by relatives in his youth, but his mother took him back after those relatives got divorced.

Murdering a parent or a parent of a spouse is punishable by at least seven years in prison. The minimum punishment for such crime is harsher than that of murder, which is punishable by at least five years in prison.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)