A 49-year-old man accused of targeting six former airline colleagues in a series of attacks that left one dead has requested a jury trial, court officials said Monday.
Kim Dong-hwan, who has been indicted and detained on charges including murder, submitted a request for a citizen-participation trial to the Busan District Court, according to legal sources.
Korea’s citizen-participation trials, akin to a jury trial, allow randomly selected Korean citizens to hear cases and deliver a nonbinding verdict. The court will decide whether to proceed with a jury trial or reject the request.
Kim’s first hearing is scheduled for May 19, and a decision on the jury trial is expected before then, a court official said.
Prosecutors allege that Kim fatally stabbed a former colleague, identified as an airline captain, at an apartment in Busanjin-gu, Busan, at around 5:30 a.m. on March 17.
The attack was part of a broader plan targeting six former coworkers, investigators said.
A day earlier, Kim allegedly attempted to kill another colleague at a residence in Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, by strangling him with a tool, but failed and fled the scene.
After the Busan killing, Kim traveled to nearby Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, to target another former colleague, but did not carry out the attack. He was arrested in Ulsan about 14 hours after the fatal stabbing.
According to prosecutors, Kim, a former Air Force intelligence officer, believed that colleagues who had backgrounds as Air Force Academy graduates and pilots had collectively undermined him and subjected him to workplace disadvantages.
He also suspected that insults from the group had contributed to health problems that forced him to quit, ending his aviation career.
Investigators said Kim had initially selected four primary targets among the six individuals and planned to attack the remaining two if circumstances prevented him from reaching his main targets.
This story was written with the assistance of AI and edited by Korea Herald staff.—Ed.
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