South Korea Launches Real-time Stalker Tracking App to Protect Victims

Fri Dec 05 2025 05:38:38 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

In a proactive measure to combat rising concerns about stalking, South Korea's justice ministry is developing a mobile app that allows victims to track their stalkers in real time, building upon recent legal reforms aimed at curbing such crimes.

The South Korean government is introducing a mobile application enabling stalking victims to track their assailants' real-time locations, an initiative stemming from an amendment to the electronic monitoring law. This move is a response to increasing public concern over stalking incidents, and aims to provide safety and immediate support to victims. The app's potential integration with emergency services highlights the country's commitment to reducing violence against women and enhancing victim protection.

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 said it was also working on integrating the tracking system into the national emergency hotline, so police could be deployed to protect victims as needed. This integration is expected to be completed next year, local media reported.

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 have been secretly filmed by spy cameras or faced hostile threats for being feminists.

In 2022, public outrage flared up over the murder of a young woman by her male ex-colleague, who had been stalking her for years. Despite her reports to the police, he was not detained, as authorities considered him 'low risk.'

In 2021, South Korea introduced an anti-stalking law carrying penalties of up to three years in prison and fines up to 30 million Korean won ($20,400). The law was revised in 2023 to lower the threshold for prosecuting stalkers, resulting in a surge in reports from 7,600 in 2022 to more than 13,000 in 2023, according to justice ministry data.