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The Ministry of Justice is pushing to swiftly separate offenders from victims by newly adding location tracking and social media monitoring to the definition of stalking acts.
The Ministry of Justice announced today (November 3) that an amendment to the Act on Punishment of Stalking Crimes containing these measures was proposed on October 26.
The amendment adds nine relationship-control acts as types of stalking: coercing relationships, location tracking, notifying of surveillance, digital control, intrusion into social relationships, control over the use of private information, creation of threats and fear, threatening pets, and isolating or cutting off relationships.
First, the Ministry of Justice stated that it will reduce blind spots in victim protection by regulating surveillance and control utilizing digital technology.
Examples include installing and operating location tracking devices and programs without the other party's consent, notifying them of surveillance by claiming to be watching them, forcing the provision of information such as passwords, and accessing or viewing and acquiring information on social media accounts without authority.
Acts that inflict harm or notify of harm to the life, body, or property of the victim or people in close relationships such as family members, and acts that restrict or cut off exchanges with family, friends, and colleagues by putting the other party in error or using one's status, were also included in the regulated targets.
The amendment also encompassed acts of harming or threatening pets raised by the other party as stalking acts, viewing them as indirect and roundabout creations of fear.
In addition, acts coercing the formation, maintenance, or resumption of relationships, such as demanding to meet again after a breakup, were newly added as stalking acts.
Acts of spreading or previewing false information or private life regarding the other party to workplaces and schools, and notifying that private life or personal information learned during the dating process will be disclosed, were also included.
Until now, these acts were not stipulated as independent stalking types under the current law, limiting public authority intervention unless combined with assault or injury.
The Ministry of Justice explained that once the amendment is enforced, victims can be protected by utilizing provisional measures such as restraining orders and the attachment of location-tracking electronic devices from stages before escalating into violence.
Those who persistently and repeatedly commit these stalking acts can be punished by imprisonment for up to 3 years or a fine of up to 30 million won.
Violations of the Stalking Punishment Act are not crimes subject to the victim's expressed will, allowing for investigation and punishment even if the victim does not want it.
Following the Namyangju stalking murder case last March, the Ministry of Justice has formed a cross-ministerial task force for responding to dating violence—participated in by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Prosecution Service, and the National Police Agency—to discuss measures to strengthen stalking responses.
An official from the Ministry of Justice stated that it will actively participate in the National Assembly deliberation process so that the amendment can be spared no support to pass during the current regular session, and will overhaul practical standards related to investigations and provisional measures so that the revised law can operate effectively in the field upon enforcement, while also strengthening linkages with victim support systems alongside the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and other agencies.
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