Yonhap Feature) Survivors, police tell of horror after lodging-house stabbing spree

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- Nam Hak-seon woke up and found herself in a nightmare.
Just after 8 a.m. on Monday, she heard screams and saw smoke seeping into her
room at the four-story lodging house where she lives in Seoul. She quickly got up
and ran downstairs in her pajamas. On her way down, she saw a man wielding a
blade at other residents as they fled from the smoke on the third floor.
"At first I thought he was trying to help us run from the fire. But he wasn't,"
Nam, a middle-aged woman who works a local diner, said in a telephone interview.
"If he had spotted me, he may have stabbed me, too."
On Tuesday, police sought an arrest warrant for a 31-year-old South Korean man
who allegedly set fire to his room at the boarding house and went on a stabbing
spree with a sashimi knife, leaving six people dead and seven wounded.
Police said the suspect, identified by his surname, Jeong, has long been
unemployed and in financial trouble and that he considered himself "mistreated"
by society.
"He said in his own words that the world looks down on him and that he did not
want to live any longer," chief investigator Kim Kap-shik told reporters on
Monday.
Five were stabbed to death, while one died after leaping from the building.
On Tuesday afternoon, police briefly allowed journalists to enter the building,
revealing a narrow corridor covered in ashes and a pool of blood that had yet to
dry in the main office. The boarding house, or "goshiwon" in Korean, was home to
about 70 people, many of whom were low-wage migrant workers from China.
A telephone receiver believed to have been used to call the police was stained
with blood, as were the stairs and walls.
Goshiwon apartments have traditionally been used by students seeking a cheap
space to study for state exams, and are characterized by bed-size rooms with
long, narrow hallways that often lead to the only exit on the floor. They have
cropped up in increasing numbers in recent years. One report estimated that there
are over 3,000 such apartment buildings nationwide, and that more than half of
the residents are non-students.
Autopsy officials said Tuesday one victim was stabbed at least 20 times while
trying to fight the suspect. Those who survived remain hospitalized at intensive
care units.
Kim Dae-young, a 28-year-old male survivor, was resting at Soon Chun Hyang
university hospital in Seoul on Tuesday. His body was wrapped almost entirely in
bandages covering burns and stab wounds. Medical officials refused to allow an
interview.
Experts have characterized Jeong as a psychopath who took out his anger at
society on those he could more easily victimize.
"He probably wanted to express his anger towards powerful or symbolic people in
society, but it was difficult to approach them, so he chose to let out his anger
on the buildings and people he had access to," said Pyo Chang-won, a criminal
psychologist at the Korea National Police University.
A group of survivors huddled outside the goshiwon Tuesday afternoon, waiting to
retrieve their belongings. One woman, who would only identify herself as Kim,
said she came from China only three months ago and that she cannot stop thinking
about the horror she witnessed while fleeing the blaze.
"I came here to only make money, thinking Korea was a safe country to live in,"
she said. "But I don't know if I made the right decision. I don't know how I can
live with this fear inside me."