Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ajosshi]

Spit touched off South Korean subway rampage that injured 8: police

SEOUL, South Korea -- A man wielding a box-cutter stabbed or cut eight people at a subway station just outside of South Korea's capital after a teenager confronted him for spitting at him, police said Sunday.

No one died in the 10-minute rampage Saturday and the injuries weren't life-threatening, according to three police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media. Police arrested a man running away from the station in Uijeongbu, which is home to U.S. and South Korean military bases, the officers said.

Such attacks are rare in South Korea.

Police identified the suspect as a 39-year-old man surnamed Yoo.

Yoo began wielding a box cutter at an 18-year-old man surnamed Park inside the train when the victim confronted Yoo for spitting at him, police said. Infuriated when Park said he would call police, Yoo began brandishing the cutter on a train and then on a station platform until he was arrested, Uijeongbu Police Station said in a statement released Sunday.

Yoo, who is unemployed and lives alone, was on his way to find work in Seoul on the subway, police said.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/spit-touched-off-south-korean-subway-rampage-that-injured-8-police-1.920569

[Captain Corea]

So the guy spits on someone, is confronted, and pulls out a box cutter and goes wild.

Sounds like he was looking to be set off.

[fermentation]

One thing the above article didn't mention is that the man who scolded Yoo for spitting kept following him after Yoo left the train and kept scolding him. That doesn't excuse Yoo or warrant getting stabbed obviously, but I felt that was kind of strange.

It was also amusing to see how the Korean media is calling for measures to stop these "constant" random attacks. In other news, there was also an ajuma going around punching random women.

[catman]

[Captain Corea]

[visitorq]

[Leon]

[Captain Corea]

a teenager confronted him for spitting at him

The wording could be diced either way. But as it is, it seems like much more than just spitting on the ground.

[maximmm]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/08/02/china-teen-knife-attack.html?cmp=rss

"A Chinese teenager has killed eight people and wounded another five in a knife attack in the country's northeast."


If this was a knife competition...

[Steelrails]

Spit leading to attempted killing? To paraphrase Meldrick Lewis "Seoul, home of the misdemeanor homicide."

[Ya-ta Boy]

Waaay back, once upon a time, when I was living in Taejon (Daejon), I came up to Seoul to shop for books and get a sandwich (at that time, Seoul was the only place for either), and I was walking between one subway stop and another, some woman spit on my shoe. I was shocked and didn't respond.

Very slowly, Koreans seem to be picking up the worst parts of western society. Koreans have some good things from traditional and contemporary society, and the West has some things worth emulating.

Spitting on other people to show contempt or disrespect is not a positive part of either. It's too bad it has migrated here.

[slothrop]

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[Captain Corea]

Really? I don't recall seeing many Paris Baguette 10+ years ago.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Two examples:

1) One day my Korean neighbor said we should go 'downtown' in Taejon. I don't remember why--I think it was to buy a shirt in my size, but.... Once we got there, and were walking under the street and I saw a gorgeous ham sandwich pic on the wall, I started salivating and more or less ended up in a skruched up ball on the floor, he said, "Forget it. There ain't no such thing in Taejon. Your tears won't change the reality." (mid-summer, 1994)

2) All Paris Baguette had was booby-trapped red-bean-paste crap. They looked nice, but buy one, hoping to get something half-way edible, and with the first bite you'd get a squirt of red-bean paste crap. Gag!!! Arg!!!

I flew home in '95 and arrived back to the overwhelmingly shocking news that there was an actual real authentic place downtown called TGIF that had actual real authentic (western) Mexican food waaaay downtown. That is where I had my birthday dinner, paying for me and two Korean friends.

I refuse to remember the night two friends and I caught a cab and rode to East Taejon to eat the crappiest, most disappointing, nearly disgusting concoction of something being passed off as Mexican food.

Are you refusing to remember when 'corn bread' meant kernels of corn in bread, rather than actual corn bread?

Do you not remember when SOME pizza restaurants used ketchup instead of tomato sauce? Hey, red is red, right?

No!

I could post page after page of things I like about Korea. Copying American versions of other ethnic foods is not one of them.

[slothrop]

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