The fiancé of two-time Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee was arrested on Thursday on charges of stalking the athlete.
Nam and Jeon Cheong-jo had announced their wedding plans only this Monday, but their relationship quickly soured when allegations surfaced that Jeon was a pathological liar with a history of scamming people.
Nam fled to her mother's house, but Jeon followed her and kept ringing the doorbell and banging on the door in the middle of the night until she called the police.
Nam became the first-ever Korean female fencer to win an Olympic silver medal in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. She also won six gold medals in the Asian Games.
The couple met at her fencing gym in January this year. In an interview with Woman Chosun magazine, Nam said Jeon told her he "had to learn fencing quickly as part of a business deal and added that the opponent was a seasoned fencer and [he] didn't want to lose." The opponent Jeon appeared to be talking about was Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Jeon "suggested running a fencing-related business together," Nam told the magazine, which apparently provided the opportunity for the two to grow closer. She told Jeon in August that she had divorced her husband of 12 years, and the couple decided to marry although Jeon is 15 years Nam's junior.
The problems only began once the couple announced their wedding. In the magazine interview, Jeon claimed to be the illegitimate offspring of the Paradise casino conglomerate owner, born and raised in the U.S., and an accomplished equestrian who won several championships until he had to give up the sport after an injury. Since then he claimed to have been an entrepreneur.
But once the article appeared, people came forward to dispute the claims. Paradise Group in a statement on Thursday denied any relationship with Jeon, while others said Jeon was born on Ganghwa Island near Incheon and had never ridden a horse in his life.
Some news media published photos purporting to show Jeon in an ordinary Korean high school. More damaging yet were revelations that Jeon has a lengthy criminal record. According to court records, he was last sentenced in late 2020 to two years and three months behind bars for scamming 10 people out of W280 million (US$1=W1,360).
This week Nam said Jeon had also been trading on her name in an attempt to persuade others to give him money. Nam had not been put off by the fact that Jeon was born a woman, telling the Woman Chosun, "I knew Jeon had undergone a sex change operation, but I decided to marry him anyway."
But on Thursday it was revealed that Jeon legally remains a woman. A police officer said, "We checked Jeon's identity and found that the second part of her resident registration number started with the number two," meaning she is a woman. Although there is no clause in Korea's civil code forbidding same-sex marriages, the government does not recognize them.
The two lived together in the swanky Signiel residences at Lotte World Tower in Seoul until Nam fled on Wednesday night and headed to her mother's place in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.
Nam did not press charges, and police released Jeon with a warning against contacting or approaching Nam. Nam's fencing gym was empty on Thursday and repeated phone calls to the facility went unanswered.
