Following his directions, police retrieved a 15-centimeter bloodied knife from a mound of trash at a residential area in Sanggye-dong, Nowon-gu.

The police are currently discerning if the blood on the knife is a match with the victim. The National Forensic Service will return the DNA test results in two to three days.

Kim, appearing sober and apparently psychological sound, prompted police to decide his claims were believable.

However, apart from the fact that he claims to be the murderer and knew where the weapon was, there is not yet definite evidence that links him to the crime.

Police refrained from further revealing Kim’s testimony, as he has yet to be booked as a suspect. A profiler is to be invited to analyze the motivation of the possible crime.

Kim had recently been released from prison, having served for robbery and murder. 

The victim was found dead in the early hours of Sunday at 5:32 a.m. with stab wounds in her neck and abdomen near the entrance of the Suraksan Mountain trail at the far northeastern tip of Seoul. She had been walking the path by herself.

In April, a megalomaniac man stabbed a trekker to death at Eodeungsan Mountain in Gwangju.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)