Since late June, stalking survivors in South Korea enrolled in a new monitoring scheme have been able to see a tagged perpetrator’s location in real time when he comes within 2km of them. If he comes within 1km, police and probation authorities receive an alert and call the victim.
About 400 people are enrolled. The app replaces an earlier text-only warning that gave survivors a distance but not the direction or location of the person approaching them.
How the monitoring system works
A court must order the suspected perpetrator to wear an electronic ankle tag before the app can be used. The justice ministry operates the tagging system, while control centres in Seoul and Daejeon monitor people subject to electronic supervision. Read the context: Investigation finds misuse of crowd control weapons caused serious injuries at ICE protests.
Staff filter alerts and send probation officers to respond to the most serious cases. Officers can see a monitored person’s live location, description and the battery level of the electronic tag. The ministry says each officer currently handles more than 20 monitored people and is working to reduce that workload by half.
The system was demonstrated at a control centre in eastern Seoul using a staged scenario. A probation officer called the survivor in the exercise after the tagged person moved closer, while officers were dispatched.
Why the app is controversial
Supporters say a live map can give survivors more useful information than a distance-only message. Yoon Hyun-bong, who directs the Seoul control centre, said knowing the direction of approach can help a survivor decide where to hide. A survivor identified as Anna, whose name was changed, said she would have welcomed the information while fleeing a violent former partner.
Sujeong Kim, director of the women’s human rights counselling centre at the Korea Women’s Hotline, said location information could help but questioned whether it might transfer responsibility for safety from authorities to victims. She warned that survivors could feel compelled to check the map wherever they go, adding to the psychological burden of living under threat.
The app’s reach is limited because tagging is not routine in stalking cases. Police apprehended 29,404 people on stalking charges across 2024 and 2025, but sought tagging orders for 1,187 suspects during that period. Courts approved 427 of those applications. South Korea’s police agency said officers seek tagging when they assess a risk of reoffending and use measures to separate perpetrators and victims according to the seriousness and risk of each case.
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