A man in his 40s, who was previously identified as a prime suspect in the serial disappearance of elementary school students in Gangjin, has been re-arrested just a month after his release for carrying a weapon.

According to the legal community, Mr. A, a man in his 40s facing charges of violating the Act on Electronic Monitoring, Etc., was arrested on October 16 and detained at the Seoul Dongbu Detention Center.

He is accused of violating compliance terms that prohibited him from carrying weapons, which had been issued to him alongside a court order to wear an electronic tracking device.

Mr. A was a prime suspect in consecutive cases where two elementary school students went missing in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province, in 2000 and 2001.

Mr. A's ex-wife found a videotape containing footage of Mr. A sexually abusing a child presumed to be one of the missing victims, but investigative authorities failed to secure direct evidence, leaving him unpunished.

However, the case recently drew widespread shock after SBS's "Unanswered Questions" revisited the fact that he had confessed to murdering and abandoning the children during past prosecution questioning before retracting his statement.

In addition, Mr. A murdered his wife's younger sibling in 2002 and served a 15-year prison sentence. Following his release, he sexually assaulted a woman with an intellectual disability in 2018, for which he was sentenced to 8 years in prison before completing his full term last month.

After his release, Mr. A stayed at a temporary residence in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. He was caught following a search by a probation office that received a tip-off that he was in possession of a weapon.

Subsequently, the probation office determined that the charges were valid and applied for an arrest warrant with the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office.

Previously, as news spread that Mr. A was residing in Dongdaemun-gu following his release, local residents and parents had expressed anxiety.

While the probation office's prompt arrest has temporarily averted concerns over potential additional crimes by Mr. A, calls are growing for thorough management and supervision of high-risk violent offenders.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Lee Yu-jin | Graphics by Lee Jung-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News