Suicide Web Sites Shock S. Korea

Dec. 19, 2000 -- South Korea, one of the world’s fastest-growing Internet markets, has been shocked by news of a contract murder and suicide pact allegedly arranged through a Web site.

On Monday, authorities arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of failing to prevent the suicides of two people he met through a Web site offering advice on how to commit suicide.

The man, identified only by his surname Kim, was with the victims just before they drank poison Dec. 13 at a motel in Kangnung city on the east coast, police said.

There are suspicions he provided the poison.

Willing Victims for Contract Killer

On an earlier occasion, Kim and a woman asked a man they met online, named Yoon, to kill them, police said.

The attempt failed. Yoon, 19, was arrested Friday for a separate and apparently “successful” contract suicide arranged over the World Wide Web.

For about $910, Yoon reportedly stabbed to death a 29-year-old man in Seoul on Dec. 12.

The victim, also named Kim, was reportedly depressed because his girlfriend died last year, but lacked to courage to kill himself, according to The Korea Times.

Yoon apparently met the victim through an Internet suicide site and expressed no remorse for the death, authorities said.

“I killed him like he asked,” The Korea Herald quoted Yoon as telling police. “I thought it was a way of helping him.”

More Deaths

Yoon was also found to have attempted to kill two more people, but failed when they resisted in the end, according to the Times, quoting police sources.

A 23-year-old woman visited Yoon at his home in mid-November and asked him to kill her.

“I tried to strangle her but gave up when she seemed to be in so much pain,” Yoon said in the Times.

Last Thursday, a 28-year-old college student, also named Kim, committed suicide with another student in Kangnung after drinking poison. Kim was said to have earlier requested Yoon’s help, but put up a struggle.

In a Gray Zone

Local reports said there are about 30 South Korean Web sites on suicide. Authorities said they would scrutinize them closely. Some offer advice and support to prevent suicide, but others seem to advocate it, even providing details on different methods.

The one used by Kim and Yoon reportedly contained advertisements for “suicide partners” and had more than 50,000 hits.

Since the police began investigating the suicides, most of the sites have been closed, although authorities still face obstacles.

“There are reports that members of such suicide sites are holding regular off-line meetings,” said Kang Seung-jo, head of the cybercrime bureau at the Seoul Police Agency.

Police are also are unsure whether the law is on their side. “It’s unclear whether the operation of such sites is illegal,” a prosecution official told the British daily The Guardian. “So we’re examining related laws and scrutinizing suicide sites, as well as collecting information on similar cases overseas.”

Out of South Korea’s 47 million people, about one-third use the Internet.

ABCNEWS’ Andrew Chang in New York and The Associated Press contributed to this report.