A jobless man in his 30s, tired of life, set fire to his gosiwon apartment in Nonhyeon-dong and stabbed residents as they tried to run from the building.
Four people are dead — all from stab wounds — and seven wounded. Most of the residents of the building are joseon-jok women.
Unfortunately, as is often the case in incidents such as these, the suspected perpetrator — tired of living he may have been — didn’t die: he was caught at the scene and is under investigation.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I am saddened beyond words,tears and anger by this news.
what’s a joseon-jok?
Not that it is unique to Korea, but it is sickening to read of disturbed guys feeling the need to take out their angst/misery on innocent people. There have been a number of stories over the past couple of years of sick people who seemingly aren’t content with doing themselves in, but feel inclined to take out their wives, children, or others. I take no pleasure in hearing of guys jumping off their apartment building or taking a late night swim off one of the bridges over the Han – to be such a tortured soul must be terrible – but is preferable to having them take other people with them.
It doesn’t really matter whether a sick individual like this is taken alive, killed by police, or commits suicide. It may give a sense of closure to some, but beyond that… Nothing can bring back the victims.
Choson-Jok are Chinese of Korean ethnic background.
Those goshiwon’s are just big fire traps. It’s favorite places for the poor and the foreigners who want to save money. The deaths are now up to 6.
In light of several mentions of the Columbine shooters as ‘martyrs’ by several subsequent school shooters (the most recent the nutball in Finland), I am glad this perp was taken alive. The world does not need anymore copy cat murderers who see some kind of self-glorification/redemption in these deluded acts.
It doesn’t seem to be reported by news media as a hate crime targeting Chinese, which it really seems it may be.
It doesn’t seem to be reported by news media as a hate crime targeting Chinese, which it really seems it may be.
You must log in to post a comment.
{ 1 trackback }