Kuala Lumpur: A woman went on a stabbing spree at the subway injuring three people after one of the victims called her ‘ajumma’ or auntie in Korean.
The 37-year-old suspect was charged with injuring two women in her 60s and a man in his 50s inside a train headed to Jukjeon Station in the city of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province,
Korea Herald reported.
Police said the suspect was on the phone when one of the two women asked her to lower her voice, calling her ‘ajumma’ which she said offended her.
One of the victims ended up having to undergo surgery, although injuries were not fatal.
Police have requested an arrest warrant for the accused based on the charge of “special violence” inflicted on another.
Similar to aggravated assault, this charge can be made when an injury has been inflicted via a deadly weapon or collective force, and is punishable by a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.
Although the word ‘ajumma’ is a casual way of referring to a middle-aged woman who is unrelated to the speaker coming from the more polite word, ‘ajumeoni’, it has grown to have a negative connotation over the years among Koreans.
The use of the word ‘ajumma’ has led to controversies in the past.
In 2021, then Seoul mayoral candidate Ahn Cheol-soo of the now-disbanded People’s Party, came under fire when referring to his opponent, Park Young-sun of the Democratic Party of Korea, as an “ajumma who has an apartment in Tokyo”.
In 2019, a local court upheld the Army’s decision to suspend a colonel, saying that his references to female subordinates as ‘ajumma’ had derogatory implications.
