Korean police reported on Saturday that a woman aged 37 has been accused of injuring three individuals with a knife while on a subway.
She claimed that she did so because someone had called her “ajumma”.
The identity of the accused has not been disclosed. The incident took place on a subway train heading to Jukjeon Station in the city of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where two women in their 60s and a man in his 50s were injured.
According to the subway police, the accused was talking on the phone when one of the two women asked her to speak more quietly, referring to her as “ajumma”. The accused said that this term offended her, although “ajumma” is a casual term used to refer to middle-aged women who are unrelated to the speaker.
Over time, the term has acquired negative connotations among Koreans. One victim had to undergo surgery, but none of the injuries were fatal.
Arrest
Officials have sought an arrest warrant for the accused on the grounds of “special violence” inflicted on another individual. This charge is similar to aggravated assault and can be applied when an injury is caused by a lethal weapon or group effort. It carries a penalty of 1-10 years in prison. Carrying a weapon also violates Article 42 of the Railroad Safety Act, but no charges were made for this particular offense.
The use of the term “ajumma” in public has sparked controversies in the past. For instance, during the 2021 Seoul mayoral election, Ahn Cheol-soo, then a candidate for the now-defunct People’s Party, came under fire for referring to his opponent, Park Young-sun of the Democratic Party of Korea, as an “ajumma who has an apartment in Tokyo.” Furthermore, in 2019, a local court upheld the military’s decision to suspend a colonel who had derogatorily referred to female subordinates as “ajumma.”