Stalking Run Amok by Yoon Seo Kim

I was too young to realize what was going on, but I still remember the visit to the emergency room as my mom woke me in the middle of the night. My dad was on a business trip to Singapore so my mom had no choice but to take me with her to the hospital as I could’ve awoken while she was gone. The memory is still sheared in my mind as my maternal aunt was beaten so badly that her facial bruises nearly shut her eyes. Some of her hair was ripped out and I could see her bloody scalp. My mom was crying so profusely at seeing her little sister in this condition that she forgot to shield me from the scene. 

My aunt was a victim of a vicious stalking incident in 2013 that I didn't understand until many years later. The stalker was a former co-worker who used to call her incessantly, show up at places where she would be, and finally, when she refused his advances, nearly beat her to death. The most despairing part of the whole incident was that my aunt refused to reveal the stalker’s identity to the police as he had threatened to kill her entire family. My aunt eventually fled South Korea in the middle of the night and moved to a state on America's east coast to escape the stalker’s wrath. I purposely leave out the name of the state as a precaution as just thinking about that time gives me chills. 

Those memories came flooding back last year when there were multiple reports of violent stalking incidents on the news. In March of last year, a stalker had pursued his female victim after meeting her through an online game and would show up unannounced at her home. After the victim refused his advances, the stalker fatally stabbed the three female members of her family as “Disguised as a delivery worker, Kim induced his first victim, the younger daughter, to open the front door, upon which he stabbed her in the neck. He then waited in the apartment and killed the mother and elder daughter as they returned home” (Lee).

This grisly stalking murder led to South Korea’s first anti-stalking law being introduced in October as stalkers had previously been charged with a only misdeameanor and fined just 100,000 won ($81). Unfortunately, South Korea had very lax laws on stalking as “More than 4,500 stalking cases were reported to police across the country last year, but offenders were punished by law in only 1 in 10 cases” (Yonhap News Agency). As a result of the anti-stalking legislation, “stalkers can face up to three years in prison or a 30 million-won fine. The punishment could be raised to a maximum of five-year imprisonment or a fine of 50 million won when a weapon or other dangerous object is used” (Yonhap News Agency). 

Dishearteningly, this new law did not deter another stalker from killing a woman who was under police protection less than one month after the new anti-stalking law came into effect. Apparently, “A man in his 30s was arrested for killing his ex-girlfriend with a knife at her studio apartment … The murder sparked public fury, as it was known that the victim was under police protection after suffering from several months of dating violence, threats and stalking by the suspect” (The Korea Times). The following month in December, a stalker “killed his former girlfriend's mother and seriously injured her younger brother at their home” (The Korea Herald) even though the woman who was stalked was also under police protection. 

Females are being killed by their stalkers even when they are under police protection which is why stalking is the biggest challenge facing women and girls in Korea today. The government and law enforcement have proven to be incompetent in protecting female stalking victims. Laws they make and the protection they provide are useless. In an shockingly audacious statement made by the the chief of the National Police Agency after the two latest murders, the chief all but admitted defeat against stalkers by stating that “that police currently lack manpower, funds and legal grounds to properly run the protection system for stalking victims” (The Korea Herald). If the police are giving up, what option do female stalking victims have but to flee the country like my aunt? Until this societal challenge is overcome, no woman or girl in the country is safe.