Seoul Subway Crime Hits 2,000 Cases Annually... Sexual Crimes Including Illegal Filming Most Frequent

Commuters are hurrying on their way to work at Gwanghwamun Station on the Seoul subway./Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] It has been revealed that over 2,000 crimes occur annually in the Seoul subway, with sex-related crimes such as illegal filming accounting for the largest proportion.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Subway Police Unit on the 15th, a total of 5,284 crimes occurred on Seoul subway lines 1 through 8 over the past three years (from 2020 to April 2022). There were 2,249 cases in 2020, 2,260 cases in 2021, and 775 cases up to April this year.

Among the crime types over the three years, sex-related crimes were the most frequent with 1,751 cases (33.1%). Theft followed with 1,387 cases (26.2%).

By line, Line 2 had the highest number with 1,778 cases (33.6%), followed by Line 5 with 653 cases, Line 7 with 617 cases, Line 4 with 590 cases, Line 3 with 575 cases, Line 1 with 541 cases, Line 6 with 416 cases, and Line 8 with 114 cases. On Lines 1 and 6, theft accounted for a larger proportion than sex crimes, while on the other lines, sex crimes were more prevalent. In particular, Line 2 had more than twice the number of both sex-related and theft crimes compared to other lines.

The Seoul Metro stated, "Crimes within the subway are gradually evolving, using specialized technology and camera equipment in malicious ways."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.