Attacks may be 'tip of iceberg' amid growing social isolation

Psychologists and sociologists say the assailants in the recent spate of random stabbings and killings that have shocked the nation share something in common: social isolation...

Choi Won-jong, encircled in red, runs after civilians at a shopping mall in Bundang, Gyeonggi, last Thursday in a stabbing rampage that killed one and injured 13. [SCREEN CAPTURE OF CCTV FOOTAGE]

Psychologists and sociologists say the assailants in the recent spate of random stabbings and killings that have shocked the nation share something in common: social isolation.

“People who already feel disconnected from society have nothing to fear in the world,” said Kwak Dae-kyung, professor at the College of Police and Criminal Justice at Dongguk University in Seoul.

“This may just be the tip of an iceberg,” he added, referring to two recent stabbings that have killed two and injured 16 others.

The assailants in both attacks had no jobs and lived isolated lives.

Cho Sun, 33, stabbed a man in his 20s, a random stranger, to death near Sillim Station in southern Seoul on July 21. He attacked three more men, all in their 30s, all strangers to Cho, before he was arrested at the scene.

Cho told the police that he suffered from an inferiority complex and had been thinking of killing people for a while.

“I wanted them to be as miserable as I was,” he reportedly told the police.

The culprit of another stabbing rampage at a shopping mall in Bundang, Gyeonggi, last Thursday, a man in his 20s named Choi Won-jong, also was unemployed. He dropped out of high school and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Jung Yoo-jung, a 23-year-old who killed a woman in her 20s in Busan in May, fits the pattern as well.

Jung approached the victim, a university student and freelance tutor who had no former relationship with Jung, via a tutor introduction app. After entering the victim's home, Jung killed her, dismembered her body and dumped parts of it in a riverside area of the Nakdong River.

Just before committing the murder, Jung reportedly shared her bitter feelings about her unhappy childhood in a phone conversation with her father.

“I am the most miserable person on earth,” she reportedly told prosecutors.

Sociologists said there may be more cases like Jung, Choi and Cho in Korea, hence the uptick of threats posted online following the stabbing attacks.

“There are many people in their 20s and 30s who are unemployed and isolated, who may feel the same as the culprits,” said Lee Yoon-ho, a criminology professor at Dongguk University.

The annual number of unemployed people aged between 15 and 29 in Korea grew from 260,000 in 2004 to 818,000 in 2020, according to Statistics Korea.

In a survey earlier this year, the Seoul city government said an estimated 129,000 people aged between 19 and 39 in the city were unemployed and living isolated lives. Nearly half were estimated to have begun leading isolated lives after failing to find jobs. Recognizing the severity of the situation, the national government came up with financial schemes earlier this year to try to encourage such reclusive youths.

Some experts pointed to a similar phenomenon in Japan in the 1990s, where random acts of terrorism spiked public anxiety.

In cases of mass murders or attacks in Japan in recent years, including one near the Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo in 1999 and the Akihabara massacre in 2008, the culprits were said to have told police that they had pent-up anger against society for not seeing any value in them.

Cho Sun had also told police that he had tried to do better with his life, but that nothing worked.

“This phenomenon of 'alienated anomie,' in which people commit crimes after experiencing disconnection from society, seems to be taking place in Korea as well,” said sociology professor Kim Moon-jo of Korea University.

“Without prompt countermeasures, the idea that anyone can be attacked can worsen social distrust, and lead to bigger social problems,” said Choi Hyang-seob, professor of sociology at Kookmin University.

The chief of the National Police Agency, Yoon Hee-keun, announced last Friday that the police will be granted special rights to search people suspected of concealing weapons in the streets and public spaces until public security is restored.

BY HA JUN-HO, SHIM SEOK-YONG, KIM HONG-BEOM, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]