Moon Sang-rok was born in South Korea around 1970. He had a troubled upbringing and by his early adulthood had already amassed three criminal convictions. His background was marked by instability, petty crimes, and a lack of steady employment.

Before joining forces with Kim Gi-hwan, Moon lived a transient life, working at construction sites and low-paying jobs while becoming increasingly involved in theft and violence. His prior convictions set him apart from the younger recruits of the Chijon Family, making him one of the more experienced criminals in the gang.

Moon met Kim Gi-hwan in 1993 during a poker game. The two bonded quickly over shared resentment toward wealthy individuals and their perception of inequality in South Korea. Together with Kim Hyun-yang, they created the gang that would later be known as the Chijon Family.

Moon Sang-rok played an active role in nearly all of the Chijon Family’s most infamous crimes between 1993 and 1994. Alongside Kim Gi-hwan, he helped establish the gang’s violent doctrine, which emphasized hatred toward the rich, loyalty enforced by death, and the total rejection of human compassion.

The gang’s first killing occurred on July 18, 1993, when they abducted Miss Choi, a 20-year-old farmer’s daughter. She was gang-raped and strangled, both as a “practice” killing and as a way for the gang to test their resolve. According to testimony, Moon was present and participated in this first murder, which set the tone for their escalating violence.

Later in August 1993, when fellow gang member Song Bong-un stole money from the group and attempted to flee, Moon participated in the manhunt that tracked him to a relative’s house. The gang executed Song with a shot to the head and buried his body near their hideout. Moon’s role reinforced the gang’s rule that betrayal would be punished with death.

Moon was also present during the kidnapping and murder of Lee Jeong-su’s boyfriend on September 8, 1994, and the subsequent repeated assaults on Lee herself. The gang lured the couple by mistaking the man’s luxury car for a sign of wealth, abducted them, and eventually forced Lee to suffocate her boyfriend while Moon and others stood guard.

Only days later, on September 13, 1994, Moon participated in the abduction of Mr. So and Mrs. Park, who were murdered despite paying ransom money. The couple was executed, dismembered, and partially incinerated, with some gang members consuming parts of the victims in a ritualistic act. Moon was implicated in carrying out and overseeing this violence alongside Kim Gi-hwan and others.

The gang’s downfall came soon afterward, when surviving victim Lee Jeong-su managed to escape and report them to the police. On September 19, 1994, Moon Sang-rok was arrested along with the rest of the gang after police lured them into a trap by pretending one member had been seriously injured in an accident.

During the trial in late 1994, Moon, like the others, showed no remorse for his crimes. He was convicted on multiple counts of murder, rape, and kidnapping. On November 1, 1994, he was sentenced to death. A year later, on November 2, 1995, he was executed by hanging at Seoul Detention Center, alongside Kim Gi-hwan and the other male members of the Chijon Family.