S. Korea to request Japan's cooperation in alleged murder case

Seoul will ask for Tokyo's help in resolving an alleged case of homicide against a South Korean woman in Japan, after a Japanese court found the killer guilty of manslaughter, not murder, the foreign ministry here said Thursday. "We will raise the issue with the Japanese government," a ministry official said on the condition of anonymity. "We plan to deliver the position of the victim's family as they're unable to accept the Japanese court's ruling and the prosecution's decision not to appeal." The 61-year-old killer, Seiichi Inuma, was sentenced on May 27 to nine years in jail on charges of killing the 32-year-old woman and dismembering and abandoning her body in the city of Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture in June 2009. Prosecutors had demanded 18 years in jail for Inuma, but the Kanazawa District Court reduced the sentence, citing a lack of evidence that he intended to kill her.