Police officers investigate the scene of a stabbing rampage on a street in Seoul, South Korea on July 21, 2023. - AP
SEOUL (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network): The suspect of a stabbing rampage that killed one person and injured three in Seoul said on Sunday he committed the crime because “life was hard”.
“I committed the crime because life was hard for me,” said the 33-year-old man, surnamed Cho, while he was on his way to the Seoul Central District Court.
“I was in a bad situation for a long period of time. I did extremely wrong things. I am a useless human being. I’m sorry.”
The police are seeking charges of murder and attempted murder.
Cho was caught red-handed with a 30cm knife at around 2.20pm on Friday. He had stabbed four passers-by in an alleyway packed with mom-and-pop stores and eateries near Sillim Station on Seoul Metro’s Line No. 2 in Gwanak-gu, southern Seoul.
One of the four victims – a man in his 20s – died, and the other three men were taken to hospital for treatment. The victims did not know Cho, said the police.
Cho reportedly said during the police interrogation that he was “full of rage” because of personal circumstances and wanted to “make other people unhappy” too. He was also aware that the alleyway was bustling with people.
Cho tested negative in a drug test, but was inconsistent during the police interrogation over whether he was under the influence of illegal drugs.
The man had records of three convictions and more than a dozen juvenile crimes, said the police.
On Saturday, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon visited the crime scene and said he would ramp up state supervision of high-risk individuals.
“It is the government’s responsibility to take pre-emptive measures to deal with crimes by psychopaths that are hard to prevent,” he said.
“More research and preparations will be under way to practically prevent such crimes. I feel the need to come up with practical countermeasures,” he added.
The police have yet to determine if Cho could be considered a psychopath.
The knife rampage is a rare incident in South Korea, where the number of intentional homicide victims remained below 1 for every 100,000 people from 2011 to 2018. This is lower than the global average of 5.8 out of 100,000 people, according to an estimate by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Footage of the incident, including a video of the suspect wielding the knife and another of him being caught by the police, has gone viral on social media. Some people have also disclosed what is believed to be the suspect’s personal information online.
The police have asked the Korea Communications Standards Commission to remove such explicit footage and block users’ access to them to curb the spread of such information on the Internet.
An act of revealing someone’s identity in relation to a suspected crime is against the personal information protection law in South Korea. Violators face up to three years of imprisonment or a 30 million won (US$23,000) fine.
