In 2018, there was an indescribably terrible murder was happened by Kim Seong-soo. He killed a man who was working at an internet cafe in Gangseo which is the western part of Seoul. This case is widely known as ‘Gangseo internet cafe murder case’ in Koreans.

The victim was working at the internet cafe and Kim Seong-soo was a user at that time. Kim asked the victim to clean up his table, but the victim ignored and an argument started between the two. According to Kim, the victim said that his father is a police officer and Kim is a worthless person unless Kim could have the power to kill him. Kim added, he flashbacked his life which has always been ignored by people and he did not want to live this life anymore. He decided to kill the victim and was about to kill himself. Kim viciously murdered the victim.

When I heard about this homicide case,
I felt fear for the society I was living in. I searched for his press interview and was dumbfounded when he said that he knew exactly how terrible what he committed was and it seemed that he was aware that he would never be forgiven by the family of the victim. He said his homicide would never be acceptable to the family of the victim and he continuously apologizes to them. Kim’s statement stood out to me that he has always been ignored by people and he did not want to live his life anymore. I did not feel he made any excuses. It was totally different compared to other criminals I have seen all my life in the media. Kim’s family petitioned for a reduction in his sentence for the reason that he was mentally ill, even though Kim said he is not. It was confirmed by a specialist that he did not have any mental illnesses, and he was normal. Therefore, I wonder how he was able to kill someone and what triggered the murderer.

There is no excuse or reason for killing someone. However, his press interview has punched my mind for a while since the reason he killed the victim was so brief and clear. We all have the same experience of being ignored by somebody. We all have felt isolated from society. But, his fury was heading toward not an individual, it was towards society. The fact that the majority of offenders were from lower-income households also made me curious. Maybe we just had an opportunity to not be a criminal at a certain point, but he didn’t. Possibly, he may have been bred by our society.

While searching for this case, I happened to find a doctor’s blog whose name is Namgung In and he is the person who treated the victim. He described very concretely on his blog the occasion when he tried to save the victim’s life but he failed. He also narrated his feelings about when he saw the terribly damaged victim’s body. He also added that

"It seemed fundamentally impossible for a horrific murder like this to not happen again in our society. The victim could have been anyone. I sincerely hope to prevent reoccurring this terrible crime in our society. If you have found lethargy in my text, it is inevitable, because we all have a stake in the lethargy of this crime.”