Shows / Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
The crimes and mysteries Korea won't talk about — deeply researched and respectfully told. Each episode reconstructs a Korean true-crime case, unsolved disappearance, cult, or disaster: what happened, how, and why.
Episodes
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 108: Cheonan Sinking (천안함 피격 사건)
It's a Friday night in March, in the cold Yellow Sea, close to the border with North Korea. A South Korean navy warship is on a routine patrol with 104 people…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 107: Assassination of Kim Jong-nam (김정남 암살 사건)
A middle-aged man is standing by a self check-in kiosk at a busy airport in Malaysia. He's waiting for a morning flight to Macau. Two young women walk up to…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 106: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Shootdown (대한항공 007편 격추 사건)
A Boeing 747 full of sleeping passengers is flying through the dark toward Seoul. The crew thinks everything is normal. They don't know they're hundreds of…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Files: Disasters at Sea — Three Ferries, One Warning Never Heeded
Welcome to Dark Files. This time, we're going to sea. For much of modern Korea, the ferry wasn't a holiday. It was how islanders reached the mainland, how a…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 105: Ahyeon-dong Gas Explosion (아현동 가스 폭발 사고)
All morning, the shopkeepers on one Seoul street could smell gas. A worker told one of them not to worry. They were just going to let some of it out. Then, a…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 104: Sangju Concert Stampede (상주 콘서트 압사 사고)
It was a public holiday in a small farming city. Thousands of people, many of them grandmothers, had waited for hours outside a stadium to see a free…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 103: Death of Son Jung-min (손정민 사망 사건)
On a spring night in 2021, two young friends sat on a mat by the Han River in Seoul, drinking and talking. Before dawn, one of them went home alone. The other…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 102: Dami Mission Rapture Incident (다미선교회 휴거 소동)
At 11:45 on the night of October 28, 1992, a man on a stage in western Seoul told a packed hall that the Lord would arrive in about fifteen minutes. Hundreds…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 101: Yongsan Tragedy (용산 참사)
Before dawn on January 20, 2009, a shipping container swung through the air above a street in central Seoul. It hung from a crane, and it was full of police…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 100: Icheon Logistics Warehouse Fire (이천 물류창고 화재)
In January 2008, a fire tore through a cold-storage warehouse under construction in Icheon, just outside Seoul. Forty workers died. The company was fined 20…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 99: Miryang Sejong Hospital Fire (밀양 세종병원 화재)
A hospital is supposed to be the safest place you can be when you're old and sick. On a freezing January morning in 2018, in a small city in southern Korea, it…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Files: Structural Collapses — When the Ground Gave Way
A building is a promise. You walk in, you go to sleep, you cross a river on your way to school, and you trust that someone, somewhere, did the work to keep it…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 98: Jecheon Sports Center Fire (제천 스포츠센터 화재)
On a cold Thursday afternoon four days before Christmas, women in a small city in central Korea were doing something completely ordinary. They were at the…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 97: Gimhae Schoolgirl Murder (김해 여고생 살인 사건)
In March 2014, a fifteen-year-old girl in Gimhae had just started high school. Her father said she was excited about it. She'd barely worn her new uniform…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 96: Hwaseong Aricell Battery Factory Fire (화성 아리셀 공장 화재)
It started with a wisp of white smoke from a stack of batteries. Workers tried to move the boxes. Someone grabbed a fire extinguisher. According to fire…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 95: Osong Underpass Flooding (오송 지하차도 참사)
It was a Saturday morning in July, and people were just trying to get somewhere. A bus driver taking a detour. Commuters heading to a train station. Then a…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 94: Jeju Air Flight 2216 Crash (제주항공 2216편 참사)
It was the Sunday morning after Christmas. A plane full of families was coming home from a holiday in Bangkok, a few minutes from landing. Then a flock of…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 93: Gyeongju Mauna Ocean Resort Gym Collapse (경주 마우나오션리조트 체육관 붕괴 사고)
It was supposed to be the first night of the rest of their lives. Hundreds of new university students, most of them barely out of high school, were packed into…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 92: Gwangju Hwajeong I-Park Collapse (광주 화정 아이파크 외벽 붕괴 사고)
On a winter afternoon in Gwangju, workers were pouring concrete on the top floor of a brand-new, 39-story apartment tower. At 3:46 p.m., the floor beneath them…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Files: The Summer of 2023 — Four Weeks of Fear
In the summer of 2023, over less than four weeks, three men attacked strangers in and around Seoul. None of the people they hurt had done anything to draw…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 91: Yeosu Immigration Detention Center Fire (여수출입국관리사무소 화재)
Just before four in the morning, in a government building in the port city of Yeosu, men woke up to smoke. They were behind iron bars. They weren't prisoners…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 90: Han River Torso Murder (한강 몸통 시신 사건)
On a summer morning in 2019, a worker patrolling the Han River in Seoul spotted something floating near a railway bridge. It was part of a human body. No head…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 89: Death of Kim Sung-jae (김성재 사망 사건)
On a Sunday night in November 1995, a 23-year-old singer walked off a live television stage in Seoul. It was his solo debut, the first night of the rest of his…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 88: Seoul Hiking-Trail Rape-Murder (신림동 등산로 성폭행 살인 사건)
It was a weekday morning in the middle of summer vacation. An elementary school teacher was walking to work along a wooded trail she knew well, a shortcut…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 87: Sillim Station Stabbing Rampage (신림역 흉기 난동 사건)
It was a Friday afternoon in July, just after two o'clock, on one of the busiest streets in southern Seoul. A young man was standing outside a building near a…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 86: Lee Ki-young Murders (이기영 살인 사건)
On Christmas morning, 2022, a woman let herself into her boyfriend's apartment in Paju, just north of Seoul. She opened a wardrobe and found a man's body…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 85: Sindang Station Murder (신당역 스토킹 살인 사건)
It was a Wednesday night in September 2022, in one of Seoul's busiest subway stations. A young station worker was walking her rounds, checking the women's…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Files: Fabricated Cases — Three Stories the State Wrote for Itself
Most of the cases on this show start with a crime and then ask who did it. Tonight's three work the other way round. In each one, the state decided what the…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 84: Murder of Kim Ha-neul (대전 초등학생 살인 사건)
It was a Monday afternoon in February 2025. A first-grader walked out of her school's after-school care room, backpack on, ready to head to her next class. A…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 83: Seohyeon Station Stabbing Rampage (서현역 흉기 난동 사건)
It was a Thursday evening in August 2023, just before six. Commuters were heading home, and shoppers were drifting into a department store connected to a busy…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 82: Pyeongtaek Won-young Child Abuse Death (평택 원영이 사건)
March 2016. A little boy in Pyeongtaek was supposed to start first grade. His name was on the enrollment list, but he never showed up. When officials asked…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 81: Goseong 22nd Division GOP Shooting (고성 22사단 GOP 총기 난사 사건)
June 2014. A frontline outpost a few kilometers from North Korea. A sergeant with less than three months left in the army finishes his guard shift, and he…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 80: Busan Seomyeon Roundhouse-Kick Attack (부산 서면 돌려차기 사건)
Busan, five o'clock on a May morning in 2022. A young woman walks into the lobby of her building and waits for the elevator. She has never met the man who…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 79: Gangseo PC Bang Murder (강서구 PC방 살인 사건)
Seoul, a Sunday morning in October 2018. A customer at an internet cafe complains that his seat is dirty. Police come, calm things down, and leave. Less than…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 78: Jeju Daycare Teacher Murder (제주 보육교사 살인 사건)
Jeju, February 2009. A young daycare teacher leaves her boyfriend's place in the middle of the night and calls for a taxi. That's the last thing anyone can say…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Files: Rampage — Four Attacks on Ordinary People, and the Warnings Before Them
None of the people in tonight's stories were targets in any way that makes sense. They were at home, at a wake, in a playground, on the stairs. They were…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 77: Pocheon Schoolgirl Abduction-Murder (포천 여중생 납치 피살 사건)
Pocheon, November 2003. A fifteen-year-old girl calls her mother and says she's almost home. It's a walk of a few minutes. She never arrives. Ninety-six days…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 76: Park Chorong-chorong-bitnari Kidnap-Murder (박초롱초롱빛나리 유괴 살해 사건)
Seoul, August 1997. A little girl walks out of her English class on a Saturday afternoon, and she never comes home. That evening, a woman calls her parents and…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 75: Kim Bo-eun and Kim Jin-gwan Case (김보은·김진관 사건)
Chungju, January 1992. In the middle of the night, a young woman calls for help. She says robbers have broken in, and her stepfather is dead. Within two days…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 74: Park Han-sang Parricide (박한상 존속살해 사건)
Seoul, May 1994. A fine house in Gangnam catches fire in the middle of the night. A wealthy herbal medicine merchant and his wife are found dead in their…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 73: Kim Seon-ja Serial Poisonings (김선자 연쇄 독살 사건)
Seoul, the late 1980s. People keep dying on buses. A woman on her way home. An old man coming back from a family birthday party. Another woman, a month later…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 72: Ji Kang-heon Hostage Incident (지강헌 인질극)
Seoul, October 1988. The Olympic flame has just gone out. The whole world has been watching Korea, and Korea has been proud. Then, two weeks later, the whole…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 71: Burning Sun Scandal (버닝썬 게이트)
It started with one man, a fight outside a nightclub, and a phone call to the police. He thought the police were there to help him. Instead, they put him in…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Files: Cults — When Faith Becomes a Weapon
Every one of these stories starts the same way. Someone offers an answer. A way to be saved. A place to belong. And the people who accept that offer are not…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 69: Daejeon Kookmin Bank Robbery-Murder (대전 국민은행 강도살인 사건)
Four days before Christmas 2001, two masked men walked into the basement car park of a bank in Daejeon carrying a revolver they had taken from a police…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 70: Nonhyeon-dong Gosiwon Arson-Stabbing (논현동 고시원 방화 살인 사건)
A Monday morning in Gangnam, a little after eight o'clock. In a cheap boarding house, a fire alarm goes off, and smoke starts filling a narrow corridor. The…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 68: Yeouido Plaza Car Rampage (여의도광장 차량질주 사건)
On a Saturday afternoon in October 1991, the biggest open space in Seoul was doing what it did every weekend. Families. Rental bicycles. Roller skates. A flat…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 67: Baekbaekgyo Cult Killings (백백교 사건)
On the sixteenth of February, 1937, a young man from Haeju walked into a house in Seoul carrying the promise of a fortune. He had spent two years working his…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 66: Kim Dae-du Serial Murders (김대두 연쇄살인 사건)
In October 1975, a young man walked into a small laundry near Cheongnyangni Station in Seoul and handed over a pair of jeans. The jeans were soaked with blood…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 65: Jeong Du-yeong Serial Murders (정두영 연쇄살인 사건)
In March 2000, in one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods of Busan, a woman came home and found a stranger standing in her house. He beat her with a baseball bat…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 64: Shin Chang-won Prison Escape and Manhunt (신창원 탈옥 사건)
At three in the morning on the twentieth of January, 1997, a man serving life in a prison in Busan pulled himself up into the ceiling of a cell toilet and…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Dark Files: Across the Line — four cases where the Korean War never really stopped
Four cases tonight, and one line running through all of them — the line drawn across Korea in 1953 that everybody involved called temporary. We start on an…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 63: People's Revolutionary Party Rebuilding Committee Case (인민혁명당 재건위원회 사건)
At about five in the morning on the ninth of April, 1975, a man named Seo Do-won was taken out of a cell in a Seoul prison and hanged. Eighteen hours earlier…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 61: Kang Ki-hun Suicide Note Forgery Case (강기훈 유서대필 조작 사건)
On the morning of the 8th of May, 1991, a young activist climbed to the roof of a university building in Seoul, set himself on fire, and jumped. He left two…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 62: Kim Dae-jung Abduction (김대중 납치 사건)
On the afternoon of August the eighth, 1973, a man walked out of a hotel room on the twenty-second floor of a building in central Tokyo, and vanished. He was…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 60: Samcheong Re-education Camps (삼청교육대)
In about five months in 1980 and 1981, South Korea arrested 60,755 of its own citizens. No warrants. No charges for most of them. No trials. More than a third…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 59: Suzy Kim Spy Fabrication Case (수지 김 간첩 조작 사건)
In the first days of January 1987, a thirty-four-year-old Korean woman was strangled in a flat in Hong Kong. Her husband killed her. That part was never really…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 58: Nowon Family Murders (노원 세 모녀 살인사건)
On the evening of 23 March 2021, a man in a delivery courier's clothes knocked on a door in north-eastern Seoul. The young woman inside told him to leave the…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 57: Jeong-in Child Abuse Death (정인이 사건)
She was sixteen months old. She had a name before the adoption — Jeong-in — and that is the name a whole country ended up saying out loud. Not in court…
- Dark Korea — Korean True Crime & Mysteries
Episode 56: Daegu Sangin-dong Gas Explosion (대구 상인동 가스 폭발 사고)
It was a Friday morning in April. Seven fifty-two. The kind of hour when a Korean city is at its most ordinary — buses idling, shop shutters going up, and…