The man, who is in his 50s, informed the local police that after an argument at his flat in the southern city of Geoje, he struck the woman with a blunt weapon.
After that, he put her lifeless body in a bag and buried it on his balcony beneath a layer of cement and bricks.
It went unseen for a time until a maintenance worker found it last month while drilling, according to local media.
Through fingerprint examination, the body—which had been partially preserved by the suitcase—was recognized as belonging to the missing woman. Her cause of death, according to an autopsy, was blunt force trauma.
The man, who the police are referring to as Mr. A, was swiftly located and taken into custody even though he was not residing in the apartment when the body was found.
He said to the police that he had been living in the Geoje studio flat with the woman for around five years when they got into a fight in October 2008, which ended with him beating her with a blunt weapon.
He then used a small third-floor balcony that was only accessible from one of the bedrooms to bury the suitcase with her remains beneath a layer of cement and bricks.