South Korean authorities are developing a mobile app for stalking victims to track in real-time the location of their stalkers, if they're nearby.
The app, announced by South Korea's justice ministry on Wednesday, is part of an approved amendment to the country's electronic monitoring law.
Stalkers have become a subject of public concern in South Korea, especially as high-profile crimes involving stalking have made headlines in recent years.
Under the current law, stalking victims can receive text message alerts when their stalkers are nearby - though these do not reveal stalkers' exact locations.
This makes it difficult for victims to determine the direction of the perpetrator, the justice ministry said in a statement.
Under the revised law, victims will be allowed to see their stalker's location on a map with their smartphones, allowing them to evacuate to safety.
Authorities track stalkers' whereabouts using wearable electronic devices.
The justice ministry stated it is also working on integrating the tracking system into the national emergency hotline, enabling police to be deployed quickly to protect victims as needed, with an expected completion next year.
Critics have voiced concern over the pervasiveness of stalking in South Korea, viewing it as part of a wider issue of violence against women. Many women have faced life-threatening encounters, including incidents of being secretly filmed and receiving threats for expressing feminist views.
In 2022, public outrage intensified following the murder of a young woman by a male ex-colleague who had stalked her for years without facing appropriate legal actions.
In 2021, South Korea established an anti-stalking law imposing up to three years of imprisonment and steep fines for offenders, further revised in 2023 to ease prosecution processes.
As a result, reports of stalking incidents surged significantly, with official data indicating a rise from 7,600 in 2022 to over 13,000 in 2023.
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