[Anchor]

As police investigations continue into cases involving hired private retaliation, the first client who commissioned such an act of terror has been arrested. The suspect is a man who had been reported for stalking his former girlfriend.

Reporter Kim Gyu-ri has the story.

[Reporter]

Last December, at an apartment complex in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

A man is seen posting flyers in front of an elevator, lingering near an entrance, and then moving into a blind spot of the CCTV camera.

Moments later, he leaves something behind, takes a photo as proof, and exits the scene.

He had smeared filth on the front door and scattered flyers containing false information about a woman, identified as A, who lived there.

It was a textbook example of an operative carrying out a private act of retaliation.

When reporting the damage to the police, A also filed a complaint stating that a man in his 30s, identified as B, had been stalking her.

A’s address was found in the search history of a subcontractor for Baedal Minjok (a food delivery platform), where members of the private retaliation organization had been working under false pretenses.

In a police interview, A stated, "I dated B briefly for about two weeks in the fall of 2024, and despite clearly telling him not to contact me, he continued to reach out and show up around me until October of last year."

Feeling threatened, A changed her phone number and installed a CCTV camera at her front door, but it was to no avail.

[A / Victim : I installed the CCTV in the winter of 2024. I was so terrified. Because of the stalking, I even got a completely new phone number. But within two days, I received a text message on the new number.]

While B denies commissioning the act of retaliation against A, police reportedly secured evidence of the solicitation from B’s mobile phone.

Consequently, the Seoul Yangcheon Police Station recently requested an arrest warrant for B on charges including instigating residential trespassing, instigating property damage, defamation, and stalking.

While police investigating the private retaliation syndicate have previously arrested operatives and the leaders of the criminal organization, this marks the first time a client who commissioned such an act of terror has been apprehended.

(Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin, Design: Lee Jong-jeong)