In South Korea, a brutal murder of a woman at a Seoul subway restroom last month has become the flashpoint of anger, fear and sorrow over violence against women. The man suspected of killing her had been stalking her for years.
The details of this murder have shocked the country. The 28-year-old had been working her usual evening shift at the subway station, unaware she was being watched. Her attacker, 31-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan, waited for over an hour outside the toilets, wearing gloves and a disposable shower cap, before following her inside and stabbing her to death. It was the day before he was due to be sentenced for stalking her.
The harassment started in 2019, a year after the pair began working together. Jeon called his colleague more than 300 times begging her to date him, threatening to harm her if she refused. When she reported him last October, he was fired from his job and arrested. But despite a police investigation and a request to the courts for him to be detained, he was never imprisoned or given a restraining order. The victim was placed under police protection for a month, until they concluded there was nothing significant to report. Jeon then continued to threaten and stalk.
The case has exposed weaknesses in South Korea's stalking laws and led to accusations the country does not treat violence against women seriously enough. Until last year, stalking was classed as a misdemeanor, punishable only by a small fine. An anti-stalking law was finally passed in October 2021, but many argued it was insufficient and would not protect victims, primarily because of its stipulation that a perpetrator can only be prosecuted with the consent of the victim. This seemingly minor loophole makes it possible for stalkers to bully their victims into withdrawing cases - in the same way Jeon attempted to threaten his victim. Jeon reportedly told police he murdered her because he resented her for taking legal action. Since the stalking law came into force last year, 7,152 stalking arrests have been made, but with only 5% of the suspects detained. In cases where police applied to the courts to get the suspect detained, one in three requests were denied. South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol has acknowledged the country's stalking laws are insufficient and has ordered the Justice Ministry to strengthen them.
But despite these promises, anger is growing. The case has also evoked memories of a similar murder six years ago, when a woman in her 20s was stabbed to death in a public restroom near Gangnam station, by a man who later said he killed her as revenge for all the women who looked down on him. To the protesters, this murder is proof that nothing has changed. "We don't need new laws," said Choi Jin-hyup, director of the group Women Link. "What we need is to change authorities' attitudes towards victims." She blames the government, which has tied itself in knots over women's rights.
During the recent election campaign, the president pledged to close the Gender Equality Ministry, declaring it obsolete because structural sexism no longer existed. When the gender minister visited the scene of the murder, she told reporters she did not believe this was a case of gender-based violence. There are now calls for her to resign.
At the subway station, 23-year-old Lee Chae-hui lays a white flower and bows her head. "I'm very angry," she says. "We keep reporting these crimes as just another mindless murder, but women are continuously stalked and attacked, and our politicians are ignoring it. People talk about how South Korea is a safe place, but as a woman in my 20s I can't relate to this at all, I feel I live in a very dangerous society." Chae-hui's friends have a phrase they use to congratulate each other: "We survived another day." The sentiment is echoed in dozens of Post-it messages asking: "How many more women need to die for this country to change?"
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