The police special operation unit patrols the underground shopping center at Gangnam Station on Aug. 7, 2023, after two mass stabbings targeting strangers caused fears to erupt nationwide. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – Three random assaults on strangers are carried out every day on average nationwide, a police report showed Monday, after recent back-to-back stabbing sprees against strangers appalled the country.
During the first half of the year, a total of 925 cases of murder, bodily harm or assault happened either due to hostility toward society or to vent one’s anger on a third party, according to the police report on potential measures to prevent crimes with abnormal motives.
Among them, 554 were assault cases, which translates into an average of 3.06 unprovoked attacks on strangers a day. The police report was submitted to Rep. Chung Woo-taik of the ruling People Power Party.
Of the total, police have officially categorized 18 serious cases as crimes with abnormal motives, widely referred to as “mudjima” crimes in Korean.
Fourteen of them involved charges of causing bodily harm, three charges of murder or attempted murder and one case of assault leading to death.
Half of the mudjima, or “don’t ask why,” cases were committed in a drunken state after the perpetrators failed to control their anger, while five are suspected of acts influenced by mental illness or drug use, and three cases unleashed their rage for a specific reason, such as a sense of inferiority.
A string of crimes in recent months targeting strangers in public places has gripped the nation in fear.
One person died and thirteen others were wounded after a man drove a car onto a pedestrian walkway and went on a stabbing rampage at a department store in Seongnam on Aug. 3.
The crime came two weeks after another stabbing spree that left one person dead and three others wounded at Seoul’s Sillim Station.
The police announced plans earlier this month to beef up patrols and stop and search operations in 3,644 crowded places as part of a special police action.
They also plan to designate reports of stabbing rampages as code zero, requiring the fastest response and dispatch of police, and actively use physical force in the face of such crimes.
(Yonhap)
