Have you been physically attacked/assaulted in Korea?

Saw something posted online today about how to avoid getting physically attacked in Korea as a foreigner: http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2008/12/tips-to-avoid-being-assaulted-in-korea.html

just wondering how many of you out there have actually been physically attacked? both men and women.

my own story: i was walking down the street in Hongdae at about 2am. going down the road from Hongdae park area in the direction of the subway station. this korean guy - looked like a university student - saw me walking down the street, and walked about 5-6 meters over and kicked me twice really hard across my legs and started swearing at me in korean.

at the time i was so shocked that thankfully i didn't do anything back just from the surprise. after he kicked me his friend dragged him away.

i was walking down the street by myself and did absolutely nothing to provoke the guy. who knows why he attacked me. kicked me hard enough to leave big blue and yellow bruises across the front of my thighs for 2 weeks.

if you have a story, share it below.

Saw something posted online today about how to avoid getting physically attacked in Korea as a foreigner: http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2008/12/tips-to-avoid-being-assaulted-in-korea.html

just wondering how many of you out there have actually been physically attacked? both men and women.

my own story: i was walking down the street in Hongdae at about 2am. going down the road from Hongdae park area in the direction of the subway station. this korean guy - looked like a university student - saw me walking down the street, and walked about 5-6 meters over and kicked me twice really hard across my legs and started swearing at me in korean.

at the time i was so shocked that thankfully i didn't do anything back just from the surprise. after he kicked me his friend dragged him away.

i was walking down the street by myself and did absolutely nothing to provoke the guy. who knows why he attacked me. kicked me hard enough to leave big blue and yellow bruises across the front of my thighs for 2 weeks.

if you have a story, share it below.

I hope you call the police and get any CCTV video of it. Then go to the hospital and stay in there for a night. Hope they will find the guy and make him pay you a sh*t ton of blood money.

Because we know, the law here will not put him in jail for assaulting an foreigner, if he was ever caught.

I've never been attacked.

My theory is that if you avoid spots where young men drink late at night your chances of being attacked reduce dramatically.

100% of the stories I know of regarding Koreans assaulting foreigners take place very late party areas.  Hongdae for example is safe but at 3am or 4am be careful.  Most Koreans are shy or timid around groups of foreigners but the ones that arent are unpredictable.

Once at a 해장국 restaurant in bupyeong a "friendly" group of drunk Korean men stood around our table while we ate and went through the whole "where are you from?" "Nice to meet you"  "what is your job?"  "Do you like korean food?" Blah blah blah.  When it became clear this was not going to end my friend told them in the most polite way possible that we just wanted to sit, finish our meal and be left alone.  Of the 5 guys 4 of them were like "of course! Enjoy your meal! Nice talking to you".   One guy (the drunkest guy) got really angry and started screaming at us and slamming furniture around.  Before his friends could drag him off he spit in my face. After that of course all hell broke loose.  Both groups spilled into the street.  The spitter kept taking swings at people in my group and drunkenly falling down.  His friends just wanted to drag him off.  It was quite the scene

it ended quickly and we gtfo.  No police thank god

I was recently sucker punched by an American soldier while I was waiting for friends outside a bar in Hongdae.
The two drunken arseholes got kicked out of the bar and suddenly the more moronic of the two stumbled over and threw a haymaker. Luckily I took it in stride (he was pretty gangly). Then his buddy kept chirping me and saying, 'just leave bro, it's your best move.' And when I didn't leave his friend jumped back and threw another sucker, but I caught him and pushed him off on the ground. At this point his friend punched me in the back of the head, twice (I was now holding his friend off of me).
A few good Samaritans came from the same bar, recognized that I was not the aggressor and man handled the two drunken soldiers away. I have no idea what happened to them after that but my head was pretty badly bruised and although I really wanted to teach them both a lesson, I'm glad I never laid a finger on them (aside from preventing further punches from the initial sucker puncher).

I was assaulted in a department store two times by the same person on two different occasions.  He was not Korean and neither am I.  I filed a police report.  He spent some time in jail and I was told by the translator that he was deported.  It was a pretty terrible experience but I am so glad I filed that police report.

I was assaulted in a department store two times by the same person on two different occasions.  He was not Korean and neither am I.  I filed a police report.  He spent some time in jail and I was told by the translator that he was deported.  It was a pretty terrible experience but I am so glad I filed that police report.

This seems a little bizarre.  I trust you weren't injured.

Did you know this person before the attack?

I was assaulted in a department store two times by the same person on two different occasions.  He was not Korean and neither am I.  I filed a police report.  He spent some time in jail and I was told by the translator that he was deported.  It was a pretty terrible experience but I am so glad I filed that police report.

Good on you. A repeat offender is a scary thing. A guy in my neighbourhood back home used to always harrass my friends and I when we were on our porch. Then we found out he shanked his son (a tenant in the same town house, but an apartment over) with an ice pick and was tased and maced by the police and arrested. I wish we'd called on him earlier.

I voted "No/Man" - I would not normally vote in a poll like this because it is flawed.  People with a story to tell are more likely to respond.

Full disclosure:  I am 43 years old, 100 kg.  Both my wife and I are of mixed European decent, and we don't normally frequent bar districts.

The linked article reminds me of

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CB8QyCkwAGoVChMI_OaPkpn9xgIVzJqUCh20wwdk&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Duj0mtxXEGE8&ei=7iC3Vfy3Mcy10gS0h5-gBg&usg=AFQjCNEEYf5AfJVFs3b6Iz9JOvCrvd0C9g&sig2=slzRwEcpeJSzk3w4Hb03pg&bvm=bv.98717601,d.dGo

I've been jumped from behind twice at night in the several years I've been in South Korea: once on a subway and once at a bus station. In both cases, it seemed like the guys who attacked me just wanted to start a fight, because after I shoved them away from me, they did not continue their attacks, nor did I continue to fight back.

I hate when people say South Korea is a safe country or that Seoul is a safe city. There are definitely differences, but South Korea is a country with crime like any other country. When people claim that it's safe here, they and others are more prone to letting their guards down and putting themselves in dangerous situations.

This article is a little old, but as of 2010, South Korea's violent crime rate was double that of the US.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/85740/skorean-violent-crime-rate-exceeds-united-states/

A translated blog post from 2010, with no source. Good source bro.

If you think South Korea's violent crime rate is double of the US. How about we do a test? I'll go through a Korean city of your choosing at 1am, and you can walk through my chosen district of Detroit at 1am.

I've never been attacked.

My theory is that if you avoid spots where young men drink late at night your chances of being attacked reduce dramatically.

Harder to do than one might think.   
You can get harassed by a drunk just going into a convenience store across from your apartment.

I had a crazy guy shove me on the train once for no reason. He got on, saw me, started talking trash, and then as he was getting off 2 stops later, he pushed me and ran out. 

Aside from that, I've just had a lot of close calls that fortunately never resulted in anything.  And it's always the old guys.  They want to arm wrestle me, or they want to take up my entire evening talking about nonsense---when I politely decline, they get pissed and start talking trash. "You are in Korea" "Speak KOrean" blah blah blah.
They've gotten in my face a bit, threw out a bunch of 'shibals', give me the "menacing' look---but they never do anything.  I just smile at them. 
I've been lucky in that usually the bartender, or one of their sober friends was there to escort them out..the last thing I need is to go to jail for beating up some old man.

I feel like that's how a lot of 'fights' in Korea go.  I see drunk guys talk trash to each other, but they never do anything.  There might be a shove, but I rarely see a full on fist fight here.

my third month living in Korea a friend and I were walking to my apartment. It was about 8 or 9 PM. We went into a mart to grab drinks and when we came out, a young Korean man, (I am guessing university age or a little older) began to follow us and soon passed us. I thought nothing of it. He entered a doorway area that was near the sidewalk ahead. As we passed it, he emerged from the door area, with his pants down (but his t shirt over his privates?) and was masturbating through his t shirt. We were cussing at him and laughing at him, and he pulled up his pants  nonchalantly and began slowing walking in the opposite direction.

it was bizarre and gross, for sure

I still maintain Korea is pretty safe place but I have a few stories.

When I was studying Korean and living in Hongdae, I had a young tall and pretty aggressive korean woman of about 25 start yelling at me and wave me towards her. I was walking in the opposite direction of her anyways and didn't realize she was talking to me until she yelled and tried to punch me in the face. This was right outisde the subway and at 1pm in the afternoon! Honestly I think she wasn't all there. I managed to dodge her/ she missed me and got a bunch of sympathetic looks from some ajummas but that was it. She just kept going on her way and I was left shocked about what happened.

Second time in Hongdae I was walking back to my place about 10 at night. Where I lived was close to the main road but not as well lit. I noticed a shadow walking behind me and felt a little nervous. The area I lived in the cafes and shops closed early and there aren't many houses there so it was a little unusual. I looked back and a korean guy of about 30 starts asking where I'm from, and if I have a boyfriend. I just answered yes i have a boyfriend, and tried to hurry away but he grabbed my arm and said: "We have talk time now?" I pulled away and back away and he grabbed my arm again. Thankfully as odd as it was he wasn't very strong and I pulled away and ran to my home. Still don't know what talk time is.

Third time was in the county of Chungnam.. I was at a self bar and the bathroom was really odd. There was a urinal, and a stall for women, and a stall for men?? So a man could use the urinal while a girl was in the stall. Terrible situation at a bar. ANYWAYS of course while I was using the toilet I realize the lock also does not work on the door. My bad for even deciding to use this, but I was at a bar and drinking and bursting to go. So a college age Korean guy comes in and starts using the urinal and tells me in Korean to not come out. So I just say yes, yes, in Korean but he must have saw me go into the bathroom cause while I stand up to uh, wipe, he opens the door and asks me "You want to sex me?"

I yelled at him every curse word I knew in English and Korean and he ran off. With my pants around my feet and toilet paper in hand I couldn't do much else.

Not as bad as some other stories I've heard and minus the guy who followed me home I laugh about these now. Be careful girls!

I was attacked at 1:00 in the afternoon by a drunk guy on a motorcycle (on the sidewalk).

While I think that you can reduce the probability by avoiding certain places/times... shit still happens.

A few months after I moved to Korea several years ago, I was looking around in a store. Apparently the shopkeeper didn't like that I was taking my time and thought I was taking too long, so out of nowhere, he randomly accosted me -- he literally violently shoved me out of the store while rudely snapping, "가!" (and a few other choice words in Korean that I didn't understand at the time) over and over again. I was somewhat shaken after that incident but eventually got over it. Actually, a kind of similar incident also happened to me at another store before, but it wasn't nearly as bad (the shopkeeper in this case just kind of pushed me out of the store, but not in the violent/assault-like manner that the shopkeeper in the former case did). I guess shopkeepers here don't like customers taking their time/taking too long to browse around, based on my aforementioned experiences.

About a year ago, I was walking in an area where there's a temple, so it's common to see monks walking around in the vicinity of that area. One time while I was walking down a sidewalk in that area, a monk stopped me and tried to talk to me. I didn't understand what he was saying (he was obviously speaking in Korean), so I just tried to walk away. However, when I tried to leave, he reached out and grabbed my arm to stop me from going -- and he didn't do it gently; it was actually more like kind of a rough grab that actually hurt my arm. I kind of bristled, gave him an alarmed "What the...?!" look, after which he reluctantly let go/I pulled my arm away, and then I hurried away from him. It was a bit of an unsettling experience, since I didn't expect a monk, of all people, to accost me.

This next anecdote isn't an assault example, but I'll mention it anyhow. A little over a year ago, I was riding the bus home from work. At a bus stop on the way back to my home, a bunch of people got on the bus, including a young adult girl (I'd guess her age to be around early 20s). I was sitting in one of the single seats next to a window near the front of the bus. All the seats were full and the bus was quite crowded at this point. Anyhow, this girl stood in front of me (or I guess technically "next to me," to my left) and started talking in Korean. At first, I assumed she was talking to a friend of hers or somebody else, so I didn't pay her any mind -- but then she brusquely put her hand on my left shoulder to get my attention (I had been looking out the bus window the whole time) -- apparently she had been talking to me and I didn't realize it until then. I looked up at her in genuine surprise (my face probably read the expression, "Huh? Why are you talking to me? I don't know what you want"), and then turned back to look out the window (since I hadn't been listening to what she had been saying, nor would I have understood any of it even if I had been). Well, apparently my ignoring her set her off -- she randomly started wailing and sobbing really loudly, and continued to do so for the rest of the bus ride (and I would guess she probably continued after I got off at my stop -- also, she moved further down the bus at this point, so at least she wasn't bawling right over me, luckily). It was like she randomly had a nervous breakdown or something, and that my ignoring her apparently triggered it. Everyone else on the bus seemed pretty weirded out by her behavior, since she was basically causing a scene by acting like an emotional wreck. She seemed unstable and highly sensitive; I don't know what was going on with her or what her deal was, but that situation kind of freaked me out. Needless to say, it was one of the most bizarre bus rides I've ever been on in Korea.

My wife and I were walking around... somewhere... can't remember at 8-9 in the evening. Really, dating type couples everywhere area. We had just finished dinner.

One of the adjummas with the papers tries to pass it to my wife who doesn't take it. Then the lady starts screaming and chasing her down the street and pushes her from behind.

--------

Another time. Went out with a group of friends for a birthday. We were in Hongdae and went to have samgyupsal. There was like 10 ppl only three of whom drank. The bar had a must buy booze policy on weekends. However, they didn't bother to mention this to us before the samgyubsal was grilling. We say sure three beers they say no we must order 50k worth.... Leads to a screaming match between the ajumma and my wife along with some shoving near the end. We just left without touching the food.

(Note: Before some dipshit apologist criticizes this... it wasn't a cultural issue... this was a 'the waitress is semi-retarded and can't mention things to people issue'.)

last weekend in the hbc area, a korean guy came up and took a near finished cig from my mouth and started smoking it and saying the usual string of koreans slurs. thankfully, i find korean machismo to be hilariously pathetic.

I'm a woman. A few months back I was on the subway and a 40s-ish man who I assume to have had a mental illness (crazy eyes, oversized dirty clothing, didn't say a word) tried to hit me a couple of times, and then tried to get me to leave the train before the doors even closed. He went for me almost immediately when I stepped on the train so I assume he targeted me just because I'm white. He wasn't able to hit me though, either he was just trying to scare me or he had really bad aim because I just shied away to avoid him.

I was majorly pissed off, threw a few choice words at him, and hurried to a different car. Thankfully he didn't follow. One thing that made me really pissed off as well was that the train was only half full so everyone around saw what happened and nobody else said or did anything.

This was on a weekend around midday and I don't think he was drunk (at least not severely). Freaked me out for a couple weeks but ultimately nothing close to that has happened again. There are crazy people everywhere.

After a fun night, 2 buddies and myself walked to the train station to catch the first train back to our city. Some filthy guy comes out of nowhere and grabs my arm. I pushed his arm off and this crazy nut starts following us for about 100m, right into the station. When we reached the station entrance me friend screamed "F*ck off!" in his face. The guy kept following, and we were drawing quite a bit of attention. Eventually we persuaded a security guard to do his job and get this guy away from us.

I'm guessing he wanted us to throw a punch and scam us for blood money.

I've never been attacked.

My theory is that if you avoid spots where young men drink late at night your chances of being attacked reduce dramatically.

So in other words, avoid coming to Korea?