The suspected murderer in the “Chief Lecturer Murder Incident,” which resulted in the death of a senior staff member from Kim Il Sung Political University in Pyongyang, has finally been arrested. The lecturer was killed with a blunt instrument in the summer of 2011 in the northern city of Hyesan, where he had been staying to conduct fieldwork at Mt. Baekdu.
A source from Yangkang Province told Daily NK on the 9th that the killer was caught in Hyesan, explaining, “The provincial security forces were reprimanded by the authorities at the time for failing to catch the murderer. So they assigned an agent exclusively to the case, and not long ago a man was apprehended.
“In 2011 they also detained and interrogated a large number of people, but didn’t find any compelling evidence,” the source recalled. “So, they ordered one of their best agents to catch the murderer and after nearly two years spent tracing the guy they say they caught him.”
“The agent had been investigating people from the area since the time of the original incident, even disguising himself as a beggar at times,” the source went on. “In doing so, he recently caught the criminal, who had been hiding at his uncle’s house.”
According to the source, the alleged murderer turned out to be a male in his thirties. He was of no fixed abode, and had been eking out a meager living through day labor.
However, while the murderer has now seemingly been caught, questions remain as to why the chief lecturer was killed in the first place.
“When they found his body, he still had all his valuables, including his badge featuring the visages of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, his nice watch and his wallet,” the source pointed out. “They caught the perpetrator and will probably reveal the motive for the murder, but everyone is still wondering why he would do such a thing.”
