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Person A, who was urgently arrested on charges of wielding a knife and inflicting serious injuries on two people at the LG Electronics Magok office complex in May / Yonhap News

Although stabbing crimes using weapons occur repeatedly, no clear solutions have been established. Meanwhile, cases of using weapons are continuously increasing, ranging from accidental offenses to planned crimes. Voices are raised one after another calling for the reinforcement of punishment alongside the restructuring of the social safety net.

The Masan Dongbu Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province arrested A, a man in his 70s, on July 27 on charges of murdering his cohabitating wife with a weapon. A is accused of stabbing his wife, B, also in her 70s, to death at their apartment residence in Masanhoewon-gu, Changwon, at around 3 p.m. on July 14.

This is the sixth weapon attack incident that occurred in the past week alone. On July 26, the Muju Police Station in North Jeolla Province applied for an arrest warrant for a man in his 40s on charges of stabbing a merchant with a weapon at a traditional market in Muju-eup, Muju County, and fleeing. On the same day, in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, a Malaysian man in his 40s stabbed and killed a fellow Malaysian man in his 20s with a weapon. On July 23, a male teenager who stabbed and injured a female high school student in a multi-family residential area in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, was arrested red-handed by the police.

At the field level, officers analyzed that the majority of stabbings occur impulsively. Senior Inspector C at a police station in Seoul said, "In most cases, the perpetrator had mental health issues, but the individual and their family lived without realizing it until the problem erupted," adding, "Incidents happen suddenly. We cannot deploy patrol personnel every 10 meters, making it difficult to respond in advance."

In addition to impulsive crimes, the use of weapons in planned crimes is also rising. According to the National Police Agency, the number of cases using weapons among the five major crimes (murder, robbery, rape and forced molestation, theft, and violence) increased by 21 percent over ten years, rising from 6,905 cases in 2014 to 8,362 cases in 2024. Although the danger of weapon crimes increases every year, proper preventive measures fail to be presented.

Experts also agree that finding a fundamental solution in a short period is not easy. Oh Yoon-sung, a professor of police administration at Soonchunhyang University, said, "The stabbing issue has been raised repeatedly for 10 to 20 years, but the reality is that no clear solution exists," adding, "As related crimes tend to be consumed as temporary issues, there is a need to establish systematic alternatives."

Choi Jong-sul, a professor of police administration at Dong-eui University, emphasized, "As crimes caused by an inability to control momentary rage increase, the reinforcement of punishment must go hand in hand with the restructuring of the social safety net." He added, "Urgent multifaceted measures are required, including strengthening patrols in high-crime areas and probation for ex-convicts, alongside public campaigns emphasizing severe accountability for weapon rampages and the establishment of mental health support systems."

                                                                                                             Choi Min-jun