'Mommy, mommy!' — smartwatch wearers still fall victim as distribution tops 20,000

The number of smartwatches distributed by police to victims of stalking and other relationship-based crimes has surpassed 20,000 for the first time this year. While the devices are meant to protect people facing threats to their safety, attacks by perpetrators continue to occur even among those wearing them.

So far this year, five smartwatch wearers have either been killed or narrowly escaped death. Police are working to strengthen victim protection measures, including upgrading the devices' capabilities.

According to data submitted Friday by the Korean National Police Agency to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Ye-ji of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, smartwatch wearers suffered a total of 27 incidents over the past five years — 14 killings and 13 attempted killings.

As of September, victims wearing smartwatches were involved in three killings and two attempted killings, all of them victims of domestic violence or stalking. The three fatal cases — all widely reported — were the stalking murder by Kim Hun in Namyangju in March, a retaliatory killing in Seongnam in July, and the case of a civil servant husband in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, in September. In all three cases, the victims were killed by a former partner or husband.

Breaking the figures down by year, 2025 recorded five killings and four attempted killings; 2024 saw four attempted killings; 2023 had one killing; and 2022 recorded five killings and three attempted killings.

Police provide smartwatches to people facing threats to their safety, such as stalking victims. The devices serve as the foundation for locating a victim in an emergency. Wearers can also contact police directly through the smartwatch without a mobile phone, and calls are recorded through the police dispatch system. Even accounting for the few minutes it takes officers to reach the scene, the devices allow victims to alert police as quickly and easily as possible in urgent situations.

The entire sequence of events was captured on recording during the Sept. 1 killing of a woman by her civil servant husband in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. The police dispatch log from the smartwatch alert that day included entries such as: "only crying sounds audible," "male voice appears to be heard," "crying sounds continue," "mommy, mommy (appears to be a child crying)" and "baby, come here, come here (female voice)."

Last year, police distributed 21,974 smartwatches — a sharp increase compared with 16,690 in 2023 and 17,508 in 2024, representing a roughly 32 percent rise in just two years.

To bolster victim protection, police this year rolled out 5,200 new-model smartwatches. The upgraded devices offer a reduced location margin of error and are equipped with altitude-sensing technology that can identify which floor of a building a wearer is on.