One in five murders in Korea last year was committed by a husband against his wife.
According to police data revealed on Tuesday, there were 55 cases of femicide or husbands murdering their wives last year, accounting for 18 percent of 301 murder cases. Most of those cases follow years of domestic violence.
There were also 26 murders of women by their boyfriends, which raises the total number of cases to 81. The number is expected to be even bigger if murders committed by ex-husbands and former boyfriends are taken into account.
This is the first time that the number of femicides has been tallied by government records instead of academic studies.
