A South Korean was sentenced to 15 years' jail in Seoul yesterday for strangling his wife in her Hong Kong flat in 1987. The case against 43-year-old Yoon Tae-sik is the first to be dealt with under the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement in Criminal Matters made between the SAR and South Korea since the accord was ratified two years ago. The capital's District Criminal Court heard Kim Ock-pun, 34, also a South Korean national, was found strangled under a bed in her Knutsford Terrace flat, Tsim Sha Tsui, on January 26, 1987 - three weeks after she had been murdered. By the time her body was found, Yoon had fled Hong Kong. He became the chief murder suspect. He was finally arrested in South Korea in October last year. Following a trial, he was jailed yesterday by Judge Kim Young-hun. After the agreement came into force, Organised Crime and Triad Bureau officers were able to assist Korean prosecutors. A police spokesman said the case showed the agreement's effectiveness in catching criminals who sought to use international boundaries to avoid capture.
