A Sydney man has been jailed for 18 years after strangling a woman — whom he "felt the urge to just kill" — with a phone charger.
Chulsoo Jung was today sentenced to serve at least 13 years and six months without parole for killing Min Sook Moon in the city's north-west in March 2021.
The NSW Supreme Court heard the pair had been in an intimate relationship for three years, having met at work about nine years before her death.
Jung told police he "felt the urge" to kill Ms Moon after she threatened to tell his wife about their affair, the court heard.
They met when Jung began delivering Korean food to Ms Moon's family-operated grocery store in Epping.
Jung, 56, strangled Ms Moon in an Epping car park after driving his work van to meet her on Rawson Street on March 8, 2021.
CCTV captured his movements before Ms Moon arrived at the vehicle, showing him move from the driver's seat to behind the front passenger seat.
When Ms Moon, 49, got into the front passenger seat, she was strangled with a telephone charger cord by Jung over the course of five-and-a-half minutes.
Jung drove to Blaxland Riverside Park where he destroyed Ms Moon's mobile phone before driving to Bunnings Warehouse at Lidcombe.
He bought a shovel and began driving to the Royal National Park before rerouting to his Homebush West home with Ms Moon's body still in his van.
Early the next morning, he drove back to Blaxland Riverside Park where he buried Ms Moon's body, and then went to work.
Ms Moon was reported missing by her family by March 10, 2021.
Police called Jung on March 16, 2021 after viewing CCTV of the Rawson Street car park.
Over the next two days, Jung denied knowledge of Ms Moon's whereabouts and gave differing versions of events to police.
However, he later confessed, telling investigators Ms Moon was asking him to divorce his wife and live with her.
Jung told police he was infuriated by her threats and killed her so his family would not find out.
"... without me realising it, I think I felt the urge to just kill her," he said in court documents.
Jung pleaded guilty to the murder in February 2022, and was today sentenced by Justice Ian Harrison.
Justice Harrison accepted Jung had shown remorse despite an initial "clumsy attempt" to cover up his crimes.
But he said nothing in the evidence before the court reduced Jung's culpability.
Justice Harrison said killing Ms Moon by strangulation "would necessarily have required a relatively prolonged exertion of force".
Jung will first be eligible for parole in September 2034.
