A gruesome incident in which a man murdered his lover and set her body on fire recently occurred in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province.
A source from North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK last Tuesday that “earlier this month, the Ministry of Social Security arrested a married man in his 30s who worked on a farm in Hoeryong on charges of entering his lover’s house, stabbing her to death, and setting her on fire while under the influence of alcohol.”
The source reported that although the man had a wife and children, he had been in an affair with a woman for more than a year who was part of the same farm work unit he was in charge of. Rumors of their affair had circulated throughout the work unit and among farm management officials and other farmers.
The affair continued even after the woman was criticized by members of her Youth League branch and reprimanded by her parents. Her parents responded by deciding to arrange a marriage for her. They convinced her to meet with a bachelor living nearby and even arranged a date for the wedding.
After hearing the news, the man she had been having an affair with found her and shouted that she should “abandon [her] marriage immediately,” while she argued that he was “trying to stand in the way of her future without even getting a divorce first.”
A few days later, he was ruminating over his lover’s marriage while drinking with a friend when he pulled out a knife in a fit of rage and went with his friend to her house in the middle of the night. He argued with the woman again, and then pulled out the knife he had been hiding and swung it at her. The woman died at the scene from multiple stab wounds.
When his lover collapsed in front of him, the man became frightened and attempted to conceal his crime by covering her body with some dry corn stalks behind a dry stalks fence and fleeing the scene after setting her body on fire.
“Thinking it was strange that their daughter left the house and then did not come back, her parents went out as the fire blazed, but it was already too late,” the source said, adding, “The neighbors became aware of the incident when they came outside at the sound of her parents’ wailing.”
The jilted lover and his friend attempted to escape, but were arrested and are currently under a preliminary examination. The source said that the two will be given a life sentence or will be sentenced to death for the crimes of homicide and mutilation of a corpse.
*Translated by S & J
