Is Korean society partly to blame for vicious attack on boy?

Is Korean society partly to blame for vicious attack on boy?. October. 03, 2012 03:21. pibak@donga.com.

“I never imagined that my child would be the victim of a random crime. I think society is also responsible.”

The parent of a 10-year-old boy who was brutally assaulted at Gyeseong Elementary School in the affluent Seocho district of Seoul said this to The Dong-A Ilbo in an interview Tuesday.

On Friday, the boy had his elbow was broken by a shovel wielded by an 18-year-old man, and the boy`s skin was torn 3 centimeters. The victim was listed in stable condition after being hospitalized, but his parent found it hard to talk about the horrible incident last week.

“I never imaged that such thing would happen to my child at his classroom during the day,” his parent said. “It’s so heartbreaking to know that the perpetrator wouldn’t have acted like a sociopath had he been properly raised at home and his school taken better care of him. It’s scary to think that anybody can be the victim. We must act to prevent such a crime from happening again in our society."

The parent said, “I heard that the suspect grew up in poverty and lived with his violent father,” adding, “Isn’t it horrible that someone who received psychotherapy at a closed ward committed a crime in a school uniform because he wanted to go back to his school years?”

The suspect told police, “I hated the rich. I cannot be rich however hard I try because I am socially marginalized.” When he committed the crime, he carried a note saying, “There are things I can never change even if I work hard and succeed someday.”

Since a closer look into the assailant’s psychological condition and motivation behind his crime was deemed necessary, a profiler from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency was dispatched to the station for a face-to-face investigation.

A police source said, “The suspect said he first entered the school to kill students but after watching children playing at the playground, he decided instead to just injure them and run away.” The assailant was judged to be sane enough to make the right judgment at the time. A surveillance camera showed him wandering in the hallway and hesitating before he broke into a classroom and used a deadly weapon to injure the victim slightly.

“I was trying to kill a famous lawmaker who often appeared on TV at the National Assembly. But I thought security would be tight and went to Gyeseong Elementary School, which I searched about on the Internet before. After committing the crime, I planned to jump off from a nearby high building,” the suspect said.

The assailant was arrested on the charge of attempted murder and assault and battery and will face prosecutors this week.

“The suspect was severely depressed as he tried to kill himself three times last year,” a police source said. “He seemed to feel guilty and anxious in the investigation, and repeatedly said ‘I’m sorry.’”

Shim Yeong-hee, a law professor at Hanyang University in Seoul, said, “People fail to overcome inequality and isolation and after experiencing severe pain, they eventually commit a crime,” adding, “In the past, materialism led to large tragic accidents such as the (1995) collapse of the Sampoong Department Store and the (1994) collapse of the Seongsu Bridge. Today, materialism causes the collapse of people’s minds and unexpected crime.”