Horrors on Korean Dating Culture

0:03It's time to save the hand for

0:05tomorrow's future. [music]

0:14[music]

0:15It really cannot be overstated how crazy

0:17this is. This is like out of a Hollywood

0:19movie. [music]

0:22Someone typed these questions into chat

0:24GPT. What happens if you take sleeping

0:27pills and alcohol together?

0:30How much would be considered dangerous?

0:37Could it kill someone?

0:50The person who typed those questions

0:52read the answer. Then a few days later

0:55on February 9th, 2026 at 20 to 9 that

0:58evening, a couple checked into a motel

1:01in Suyu Dong in the north of Seoul.

1:05Just under 2 hours later, the woman

1:07walked out alone carrying black plastic

1:10bags.

1:11Shortly afterwards, she got into a white

1:13car. The following evening at around

1:166:00, the man was found dead in that

1:19motel room. The chat GPT conversation

1:23wouldn't become public knowledge until

1:24weeks later. When it finally did, it

1:28made headlines across South Korea.

1:31[music]

1:42Gangbuk, which literally means north of

1:45the river, is a district that sits above

1:47the Han River on the northern side of

1:49Seoul, South Korea. It's an older,

1:52quieter part of the city with narrow

1:54streets, small businesses, and countless

1:57restaurants. And it was here that on

2:00February 10th, 2026,

2:03police entered a local motel after

2:05receiving a report of an unresponsive

2:07man. The staff had gone into the room at

2:09around 6:00 that evening. The guest,

2:12whose identity has never been made

2:14public, had checked in the previous

2:16night, but hadn't checked out or

2:19responded to repeated attempts to

2:20contact him. I'll refer to him as Mr. B.

2:24They found him lying in bed, not

2:26breathing. His body had already become

2:29stiff. Bodily fluids were present, and a

2:32can of beer sat on the bedside table.

2:36There were no signs of a struggle and no

2:38obvious cause of death. And as strange

2:41as the scene was, it wasn't entirely

2:44unfamiliar to investigators.

2:49Just 11 days earlier, on January 29th,

2:52police had responded to another call

2:54from a motel less than a kilometer away.

2:57Another man in his 20s had been found

3:00dead in his motel room in almost

3:02identical circumstances.

3:05South Korean media follows strict victim

3:07anonymization guidelines, so neither

3:10victim's name has been released

3:11publicly. To keep things simple, I'll

3:15refer to the first victim as Mr. A and

3:17the second as Mr. B.

3:20Two young men, both in their 20ies, both

3:23strangers to each other, died within 11

3:26days in the same part of Seoul. And

3:29there was one person connected to both

3:31of them. A young woman in her 20s

3:34captured on CCTV entering both motel

3:37alongside the victims and leaving alone

3:40shortly afterwards. [music]

3:47[music]

3:54The investigation that would eventually

3:56identify Kim So Young as a suspect did

3:59not begin with the second death.

4:01It actually began with the first.

4:04When Mr. A was found dead on January

4:0729th, police didn't immediately treat

4:09the case as a [music] homicide.

4:11Like I mentioned earlier, there were no

4:13obvious signs of foul [music] play. Even

4:16so, they opened an investigation. What

4:19followed was effectively a race [music]

4:21against time that they would ultimately

4:23lose.

4:25It took investigators 8 days of

4:27reviewing CCTV footage before they

4:29finally

4:29>> [music]

4:30>> identified the young woman who had

4:31entered the motel with Mr. A. Once they

4:34had a face, they ran it through police

4:36records and quickly discovered that Kim

4:38Soong's name was already familiar to

4:41them.

4:51Back in August 2025, an unnamed man had

4:55reported her for theft. Then on December

4:5814th, 2025, just 6 weeks before the

5:02first murder, another complaint was

5:04filed at a police station in Namyangju.

5:08This time it came from Kim's boyfriend

5:10of 1 month. The two had met outside a

5:13cafe where Kim handed him an energy

5:15drink in the car park. A few minutes

5:18after they went inside, he suddenly

5:20collapsed. He was rushed to hospital and

5:23diagnosed with toxic encphylopathy,

5:25a form of brain injury caused by toxic

5:28substances. By the time Mr. A died on

5:31January 29th, that investigation still

5:34hadn't progressed far enough to justify

5:36an arrest. [music] However, with CCTV

5:39now linking Kim to the first motel death

5:42and these reported incidents, police

5:44contacted her on February 2nd and asked

5:47her to come in for questioning. She

5:49agreed. The interview was scheduled for

5:52February 9th, but in the meantime,

5:55investigators received the toxicology

5:57results from Mr. A's postmortem.

6:00Believing they needed more time to

6:01prepare, they postponed the interview

6:04and told Kim she could come in at a

6:06later date. But that delay would have

6:08serious consequences.

6:10While detectives were finalizing the

6:12paperwork, a second man was dying in

6:15another motel room. [music] The second

6:18death, if anything, accelerated the case

6:20decisively.

6:22CCTV from the second motel matched the

6:25first. Same woman, same method, and same

6:29district.

6:31Within hours of discovering Mr. V's

6:33body. Police arrested Kim So Yong

6:35outside her home in Gangbook on February

6:3810th, 2026.

6:40When officers searched her flat, they

6:43found exactly what they'd been looking

6:44for. A large collection of prescription

6:47psychotropic medication,

6:49numerous empty hangover drink bottles

6:52identical to those believed to have been

6:54used during the crimes, and perhaps most

6:57importantly,

6:58her mobile phone.

7:10Born in 2005, Kim So Yong was just 20

7:14years old when she was arrested in

7:15[music] February of 2026.

7:18Soon afterwards, prosecutors took the

7:20unusual step of publicly releasing her

7:23identity. Her name, age, and photograph

7:26were published on the prosecution's

7:28official website, where under Korean

7:31procedure, they remained available for

7:3330 days.

7:35Under Korean law, the public disclosure

7:37of a criminal suspect's identity is

7:40reserved for cases of sufficient

7:41gravity, where the evidence is strong

7:44and the public interest is deemed to

7:46outweigh the suspect's right [music] to

7:48anonymity.

7:49The authorities decided this case met

7:52that threshold.

7:57Long before anyone died, Kim had already

8:00developed a pattern of how to exploit

8:02every system around her. She dropped out

8:05of middle school, was later expelled

8:07from secondary school, and was

8:09eventually evicted from a youth support

8:10facility after repeated thefts.

8:13Acquaintances described her as

8:15attractive and described a pattern of

8:17behavior that was, in retrospect,

8:20distinctly alarming.

8:22She would approach men and get

8:24everything she wanted from them with her

8:25charm and persistence.

8:27Her history of manipulation stretched

8:29back well before the murders.

8:32The very first man who reported her for

8:34theft back in August 2025 experienced

8:38that firsthand.

8:40After he went to police, Kim retaliated

8:43by accusing him of sexual assault. She

8:45claimed he had forced her into a motel

8:47and assaulted her against her will. By

8:50that point, she'd already obtained a

8:52prescription for bzzoazipines after

8:55telling a psychiatrist she was suffering

8:57from PTSD,

8:58and she submitted that prescription as

9:00supporting evidence for her allegation.

9:03The case was eventually dropped for lack

9:05of evidence.

9:07While seeking treatment for what she

9:08claimed was post-traumatic stress, Kim

9:11So Yong visited another psychiatric

9:13clinic and obtained additional

9:15prescriptions for sleeping pills and

9:17tranquilizers.

9:19She took them herself and soon felt her

9:22whole body go limp. She had a

9:24realization.

9:25If the drugs could do that to her, they

9:28could do that to anyone. And a young

9:31woman who could control what a man drank

9:33would be able to overpower him

9:35completely.

9:37The clinics she subsequently visited had

9:39no means to disprove a self-reported

9:41trauma history. Her fabricated

9:44victimhood became a clinical record and

9:46her clinical record became a

9:48prescription.

9:50She then began visiting multiple

9:52clinics, a practice called doctor

9:54shopping. She visited at least five

9:57different psychiatric clinics across

9:58Seoul, presenting different symptoms to

10:01different doctors. Panic disorder here,

10:04insomnia there, depression and

10:06arrhythmia elsewhere. Each doctor

10:09prescribed medication based on the

10:11symptoms they were presented with. Over

10:13time, Kim accumulated large quantities

10:16of prescription drugs, stored them, and

10:19crushed them into a fine powder for

10:20later use. [music] The fact that she

10:23spent months fabricating psychiatric

10:25illnesses purely to obtain drugs capable

10:27of killing someone tells you something

10:29about the level of planning involved.

10:32Then she started testing them.

10:40By this point, Kim Soyong had developed

10:43two main ways of finding victims.

10:46The first was through what South Koreans

10:48call a hunting botcher.

10:50These are social venues where single men

10:52and women, typically in their 20s, are

10:55seated separately and encouraged to

10:57approach one another. The exact format

11:00varies from place to place, but the idea

11:02is always the same. strangers, alcohol,

11:07and the expectation that conversations

11:09might turn into dates.

11:11The second was through social media. Kim

11:14was particularly active on platforms

11:16like Instagram, where she would message

11:18men and arrange to meet them and

11:20gradually persuade them to pay for

11:22meals, drinks, and entertainment. And

11:25part of what made her so effective on

11:27Instagram was that she didn't really

11:29look like her Instagram photos.

11:32She had been using May 2, a Chinese AI

11:35photo editing app to smooth her skin,

11:37reshape her face, and layer soft,

11:40flattering filters across her images.

11:43When her real appearance was eventually

11:45made public, many who had seen her

11:47photos online or even exchanged messages

11:50with her were genuinely taken aback.

11:53Well, the photos had done pretty much

11:55what she needed them to do. They got

11:58people's attention, and she took it from

12:00there. She would eventually persuade

12:02some guys online to give her money

12:04directly through charm, manufactured

12:06emotional dependency, and outright

12:08requests.

12:10She was by multiple accounts very good

12:12at it. None of this was new, though.

12:16This is what she had been doing for

12:17years. But at some point during the

12:20autumn of 2025, the dynamic shifted. The

12:24goal was no longer just money. It became

12:27a sort of experimentation. Her first

12:30known drugging attempt took place in

12:32October 2025, which had been a partial

12:35success. While having wine with a man at

12:38a restaurant, she secretly gave him one

12:40of her drug mixtures. He collapsed, but

12:44he recovered sooner than she'd expected.

12:47For Kim, that meant the dosage wasn't

12:49strong enough, so she began adjusting

12:51the formula, varying the types and

12:54quantities of drugs. She also wanted to

12:57know whether alcohol amplified the

12:58effect. To find out, she used her own

13:02boyfriend of 1 month as a controlled

13:04variable who was given the drugs

13:06dissolved in an energy drink, no alcohol

13:08at all, allowing her to compare the

13:11effects directly.

13:13The result of that we already know. Her

13:15boyfriend was hospitalized and remained

13:18unconscious for 2 days before eventually

13:20recovering.

13:22But even that wasn't enough. On January

13:2524th, 2026,

13:27another man collapsed after drinking

13:29with Kim at a karaoke bar. She called an

13:32ambulance herself. According to

13:34emergency dispatch records, she told the

13:37operator, "Some guy got drunk and won't

13:40wake up when I try to wake him. He can't

13:42handle alcohol."

13:44He also survived.

13:46There was another incident earlier in

13:48January where another man at a motel in

13:50Jong Nugu was found unconscious but

13:53survived. Another data point in a

13:56pattern that was escalating steadily

13:58deliberately.

14:08After four test runs, one lesson stood

14:10out. In public venues like restaurants,

14:13cafes, [music] karaoke bars, witnesses

14:16could intervene.

14:18People would stop her leaving and she

14:20couldn't control what happened next. If

14:23she wanted to complete what she had

14:24started without interruption, she needed

14:27to be somewhere private. From then on,

14:30she only chose motel.

14:38When Kim Soong was arrested, police

14:40seized her mobile phone. What

14:43investigators found on that device was

14:44something that had to [music] this point

14:47never been introduced as murder evidence

14:48in a South Korean courtroom. A

14:51conversation with Chat GPT.

14:55According to South Korean police, Chat

14:57GPT played a direct role in the murders.

15:01I won't spend too much time covering the

15:03first murder because in many ways it

15:05closely mirrors what happened to the

15:07second victim and we simply have far

15:09more information about that case. There

15:12is however one detail that's worth

15:15mentioning.

15:16After leaving the motel while Mr. A lay

15:18unconscious inside, Kim sent him a

15:21message that read, "You're too drunk.

15:24Keep falling asleep."

15:26As though nothing had happened, she then

15:28left South Korea on a short trip to

15:30Japan just a few days later. She was now

15:33outside the country beyond the immediate

15:36reach of investigators.

15:38According to Korean news reports, she

15:41showed no signs of distress whatsoever.

15:44In fact, while she was in Japan, she was

15:46already messaging another man about what

15:48they should eat together. That man would

15:52become her next victim.

15:54On the evening of the second murder,

15:56February 9th, Kim messaged her date.

16:00Well, her victim, Mr. B. Hey, remember

16:04you said we'd eat meat next time. I know

16:07a good place, but it happens to be

16:09delivery only food. So, should we drink

16:12in the room? Or if that feels awkward,

16:15we could drink somewhere else and eat

16:17there, too. We drink at a bar first

16:19round. Then, for round two, wouldn't it

16:22be better to have drinks in the room?

16:24I know a good meat place, so we buy

16:27alcohol at a convenience store and eat

16:29there rather than heading in right away.

16:33Kim had everything planned out. At

16:36around 20 to 8 in the evening, CCTV

16:39captured her inside a small convenience

16:41store alongside Mr. B. He watched her

16:44get 35,0001 worth of drinks, roughly $18

16:48or $24. and he ended up footing the

16:51entire bill after she claimed she didn't

16:54have enough money. At 9:23 that evening

16:58inside the motel room, Mr. B drank from

17:01the drugged bottle and gradually lost

17:03consciousness.

17:04Once he was no longer responsive, Kim

17:07used his debit card to order 22 items of

17:10food costing around 130,0001,

17:14roughly £72 or $90.

17:17The delivery driver arrived at around

17:1910:11 that night. According to

17:21investigating [music] authorities, the

17:23driver noted she opened the door just

17:25enough to stick her hand out. A few

17:28minutes later, at around 10:19, she

17:31left. She took the drugged bottle with

17:34her, left behind an empty can of beer

17:37and a clean hangover drink.

17:41[music]

17:45She sent a photo of the inside of the

17:47taxi. Then a message. I'm in a taxi

17:52heading home. I really did want to stay

17:54and share the room with you, but I got

17:57my period, so I had to go. I didn't even

18:00have pads on me. Thank you for the cash

18:03for the taxi and for buying me all that

18:05lovely food. I'm a little sad you fell

18:08asleep on me. Then came a longer

18:11message.

18:12When I said my stomach had suddenly gone

18:14and I needed to get home, you gave me

18:16the cash for the taxi. There was

18:19something tucked in with it. I'll give

18:21that back next time. Anyway, thank you

18:24for worrying about me getting home safe.

18:27You ordered fried chicken on my phone.

18:29We watched a film together. You were

18:31even moved to tears. And then you just

18:34fell asleep. When the food was about to

18:37arrive, I tried to wake you and you

18:39handed me your card to pay.

18:41I told you not to sleep, but you were so

18:44tired. I asked what to do with the food,

18:47and you said just eat it or take it

18:49home. So, I took it with me since eating

18:53alone there felt too lonely.

18:56Next time, let's go for Korean beef.

18:59Every message [music] was creating an

19:00alibi. The food was his idea. The card

19:04was his choice. Going home was his

19:06suggestion.

19:08She was composing in real time a version

19:11of events that would explain away every

19:13[music] piece of evidence.

19:27The trial began on April 9th, 2026 at

19:31the 14th criminal division of Soul

19:33Northern District Court. Prosecutors

19:36presented toxicology reports showing

19:38that the amount of medication found in

19:40both victims bodies exceeded what

19:42experts described as the lethal

19:44threshold.

19:45They presented the chat GPT logs as well

19:48as the CCTV [music] footage. Now, there

19:51is however one important detail that's

19:54worth mentioning here as well. By the

19:56time the trial began, almost every

19:59report covering the case, from South

20:01Korean newspapers to major international

20:03outlets, [music] had paraphrased Kim's

20:05conversation with Chat GPT in roughly

20:08the same way. Many reports gave the

20:11impression that Kim had specifically

20:13asked about mixing sleeping pills with

20:15alcohol from the very beginning, but

20:17that isn't what she actually [music]

20:19typed. Her first question was simply,

20:23"What happens if you overdose on

20:24sleeping pills?"

20:26Then, "Will a person die if they take a

20:29lot of sleeping pills?"

20:32It was chat GPT that introduced alcohol

20:34into the conversation.

20:36While answering a question about

20:38sleeping pill overdoses, the model

20:40explained that combining certain

20:42medications with alcohol significantly

20:44increased the risk of respiratory

20:46failure.

20:47Open AAI, the company behind ChatGpt,

20:51later issued a statement explaining that

20:53Kim's questions were factual in nature

20:56and therefore did not trigger any of the

20:58platform safety filters. The AI hadn't

21:01told her how to poison someone. It

21:04hadn't given her a method or a recipe.

21:06She already had the method. She

21:09basically wanted to find out whether it

21:11could be fatal.

21:13For investigators though, the more

21:15important question wasn't whether chat

21:17GPT had influenced the murders. It was

21:20whether those conversations demonstrated

21:22that Kim herself [music] understood the

21:24consequences of what she was doing.

21:27Prosecutors believed they did. Alongside

21:30the criminal proceedings, Kim also

21:32underwent extensive psychological and

21:34cognitive assessments.

21:36One of those assessments involved the

21:38hair psychopathy checklist revised,

21:40[music] better known as the PCLR,

21:44the most widely used diagnostic tool to

21:46measure psychopathic [music] traits. Kim

21:49scored 25 out of 40. In South Korea, a

21:54score of around 25 is generally

21:56considered the threshold for a clinical

21:57designation of psychopathy.

22:00She sat precisely on that line. To put

22:03that into perspective, it is the fifth

22:05highest psychopathy score ever recorded

22:07in a South Korean criminal case, placing

22:10her alongside names such as Yu Yong Ch,

22:14a serial killer responsible [music] for

22:1520 deaths, and Jong Yu Jong, who gained

22:19international notoriety for the 2023

22:22murder of her tutor.

22:25But the psychopathy score was only part

22:27of the picture [music]

22:28because there had always been another

22:30question.

22:31How did someone methodical enough to

22:33conduct months of drug trials simply

22:36fail to account for the CCTV cameras?

22:39How did she not see the trail she was

22:41leaving? Why leave behind text messages?

22:45Why continue using the same approach

22:47after her own boyfriend had already

22:49reported her to the police?

22:51The IQ assessment provided the answer.

22:55Kim so young has an IQ of between 70 and

22:5880, placing her in what psychologists

23:00call the borderline range, the bottom

23:0310% of the population.

23:05Criminal psychologist Professor Lee Su

23:08Jang of Kyongi University stated that an

23:11IQ in this range makes meticulous

23:13sequential planning cognitively

23:15difficult.

23:16And combined with her psychopathic

23:18profile, the criminal psychologists

23:20arrived at an unusual combination.

23:24someone capable of extraordinary

23:25emotional detachment, but without the

23:28cognitive ability to fully think several

23:30steps ahead. Her defense pointed to her

23:33childhood. Her father was violent and

23:36struggled with alcoholism, regularly

23:38beating her mother before eventually

23:40abandoning the family while Kim was

23:42still in primary school. They also

23:45pointed to her cognitive diagnosis,

23:47arguing that the instability she

23:49experienced during those early years may

23:52have affected her neurological

23:53development during a critical period of

23:55childhood.

23:57According to the defense, the

23:58deprivation she experienced [music]

24:00growing up, both physical and emotional,

24:03had eventually hardened into something

24:05she could no longer control. But the

24:08victim's families weren't persuaded. 94

24:11petitions from the victim's families

24:13demanding the death penalty was

24:15submitted to the court. She and her

24:18parents are being sued for 1.1 billion1

24:21by the victim's families around $600,000

24:25or $810,000.

24:28Kim stated that she can't repay this

24:30even if she works her whole life. She

24:33also argued that her parents should not

24:35be held liable and asked the families to

24:37reduce the amount. As of July 15th,

24:402026, according to a report by YTN, she

24:45continues to deny any intention to kill

24:47either victims.

24:49Her defense is that she administered

24:50drugs to the men to prevent them from

24:52sexually assaulting her. She basically

24:54wanted to prevent unwanted sexual

24:56contact. Later, that argument became

24:59even more specific.

25:01Rather than presenting it as a general

25:03precaution, Kim alleged that particular

25:06victims had previously forced her into

25:08unwanted sexual acts and that drugging

25:10those men was a targeted response to

25:12those specific incidents.

25:15Prosecutors rejected that explanation

25:17entirely.

25:18Messages showed Kim suggesting they go

25:20to motel.

25:22CCTV also captured her willingly holding

25:25the men's hands on the way there and

25:27behaving affectionately throughout their

25:28dates. In court, prosecutors presented

25:32additional footage showing her smiling

25:34and appearing visibly excited. Taken

25:37together, it painted a very different

25:39picture from the one she was presenting

25:41in her defense, and the court did not

25:43treat her as a victim.

25:46In March 2026, a five-page handwritten

25:50letter from Kim Soyong written from Soul

25:52Detention Center was made public.

25:55Someone had written to her asking about

25:57the case and she'd written back. I have

26:00access to four of those five pages.

26:02[music]

26:03I'm not going to go through it line by

26:05line, but a few things stood out. In her

26:08own [music] words, she wrote, "I can't

26:11sleep. I cry every day. I'm exhausted."

26:17and elsewhere in the letter. Being

26:19separated from my family, my heart

26:22crumbles and tears apart a little more

26:24each day. She wrote that she was afraid

26:27she'd never leave and die in prison. To

26:31the victims and their families, she

26:32wrote, [music]

26:34"I'm sorry.

26:36I know I can't be forgiven. I will spend

26:39my life in reflection."

26:41while in the same letter claiming she'd

26:43given the drugs out of fear after

26:45memories of being sexually assaulted

26:47came back to her. She also complained

26:50that there was too much media coverage

26:52and that having her identity disclosed

26:54meant everyone recognized her. The

26:57letter ended with a call for better

26:59psychological treatment of suspects and

27:01for their side of the story to be

27:03properly heard.

27:07Korean online communities erupted in

27:09debate. Was the identity disclosure

27:12appropriate? Did Kim Soyong's youth make

27:15the publication of her photograph a

27:17violation of her rights?

27:19The consequences of the case's notoriety

27:22spread further than the online debate.

27:25In early March 2026, a Korean broadcast

27:28network's investigative program,

27:30Unanswered Questions, displayed Kim's

27:33drug names on screen. Within hours,

27:36users had reconstructed and circulated

27:38what they were calling [music] a recipe.

27:41On X, it reached 2 million views and

27:4424,000 likes. [music]

27:47A professor of criminal psychology

27:49appeared on television to warn that this

27:51kind [music] of viral dissemination had

27:53lowered the barrier to copycat crime.

27:56The warning would prove legitimate. In

27:59May 2026, a taekwondo gym director was

28:03arrested for attempting murder using the

28:05same class of drugs.

28:08Kim herself addressed the disclosure

28:10directly. In the same handwritten

28:12submission to the civil court, where she

28:14pleaded poverty over the damages claim,

28:17she also wrote about the prosecutor's

28:19decision to publish her name and face.

28:22It had destroyed her life. She said she

28:25could not even dream now.

28:31I'll leave it here for today. If this

28:34video was worth your time, a like and a

28:36subscribe go a long way. Keep vigilant

28:40and as always, thanks for watching.