Dozens to Hundreds of Messages a Day: Woman Who Stalked Actor Hwang Jung-min Criminally Fined ₩6 Million
A woman in her forties who sent actor Hwang Jung-min and his family hundreds of KakaoTalk and text messages — including suicide threats and demands to speak with his children — has been convicted of stalking and criminally fined ₩6 million, double the amount of the original summary order she rejected. Here are the key points.
Background
- Hwang Jung-min’s agency reported A to police in August 2025, alleging sustained stalking behavior. A court issued a summary fine order of ₩3 million in February 2026. A rejected it and requested a formal trial — at which the fine was doubled to ₩6 million.
- A did not attend the sentencing hearing. Only Hwang and A’s defense counsel were present.
What A Did
- A sent Hwang and members of his family hundreds of KakaoTalk messages and text messages — in some periods sending dozens to hundreds of messages in a single day.
- Messages included demands that Hwang arrange contact with his children, threats to end her own life, and content Hwang described as deeply distressing.
- Throughout the proceedings, A maintained a parallel social media campaign on her personal accounts, claiming a prior private relationship with Hwang and publicly releasing what she described as call logs, audio recordings, and message exchanges.
- A also filed a ₩200 million civil lawsuit against Hwang during the criminal proceedings.
Court Decision
- Uijeongbu District Court, Goyang Branch (Criminal Division 4, Judge Kim Yeong-a) convicted A and imposed a fine of ₩6 million and a mandatory 40-hour stalking treatment program.
- The court found that A was fully aware Hwang did not want contact, and continued anyway — sending messages at a volume and with content capable of inducing serious fear and anxiety in the recipient. The court noted A showed no remorse and continued to place blame on Hwang rather than acknowledge her conduct. Her clean prior record was the sole mitigating factor.
Hwang’s Agency Response
- Following the verdict, Hwang’s agency Samp Company stated the ruling confirmed that stalking behavior threatening another person’s life cannot be justified under any circumstances, and that separate legal action is being prepared over false information A spread during the proceedings and the release of what the agency described as maliciously edited recordings — with no leniency to be shown.
Key Takeaways
- Rejecting a summary order and requesting a formal trial carries real risk. Here the fine doubled from ₩3 million to ₩6 million — a direct consequence of A’s decision to contest.
- The stalking offense is established not by the content of any single message but by the volume, persistence, and overall pattern of contact made in full knowledge of the recipient’s refusal. Dozens to hundreds of messages per day meets that standard clearly.
- Continuing to blame the victim rather than acknowledge the conduct is treated as an aggravating factor in sentencing — it signals a lack of insight that makes reoffending more likely.
- A public social media campaign conducted in parallel with criminal proceedings — including release of claimed recordings and personal communications — may itself generate separate legal liability, as Hwang’s agency has indicated it intends to pursue.
Why This Matters
This case is a useful illustration of how Korea’s stalking law applies to sustained digital harassment of a public figure — and how contesting a summary order can backfire when the underlying facts are clear. For public figures and their legal teams, it confirms that the stalking framework is an effective tool against persistent messaging campaigns, even where the perpetrator claims a prior relationship. For anyone in A’s position, the doubling of the fine upon formal trial is a practical caution: the summary order process exists to resolve straightforward cases efficiently, and challenging it without new exculpatory evidence is unlikely to improve the outcome.
Article: https://www.mt.co.kr/society/2026/09/08/2026090811094014761
Leave a comment