Hyun is charged with having been incited by a 30-year-old woman surnamed Kim to kill another woman who was living with her former boyfriend and stabbing the 27-year old identified as Chang to death in a parking lot in Seongnam on June 24.

Hyun operated a website titled “Hitman 1,” where Kim hired him on June 4 to carry out the deed. Police say Kim paid W6 million (US$6,000) by courier service three days after the murder on June 27. Hyun sent his client some dozen e-mails with such messages as “I’m going to her house to ambush her,” “I’ve checked the parking lot,” and “I lost her while I was tailing her,” before he killed Chang, police said.

Officers said they traced Kim after going through the victim’s mobile phone record. Kim also contacted other ostensible hitmen online, who swindled her out of W10.5 million in advance payments.

Police said Kim was angry with her boyfriend of five years identified as Ji, 30, who she said promised to marry her but instead applied for a license to marry Chang last March.

(englishnews@chosun.com )