‘Seohyeon Station Stabbing’ Choi Won-jong, "Already Suffering in Detention Center, Tortured for Decades" Handwritten Letter

Sent handwritten letter to the media
"I reflect" and "Suffering in detention center"

Choi Won-jong (22), who caused 2 deaths and 12 injuries in a stabbing rampage at Seohyeon Station, expressed the hardships of his detention life in a handwritten letter.

According to the Chosun Ilbo on the 9th, Choi Won-jong, who is incarcerated at Dongbu Detention Center, sent a handwritten letter titled "An Apology to All Those Who Were Harmed" on the 1st. The media stated that the contents of the letter are Choi’s unilateral claims and have not been verified.

Choi Won-jong, the assailant involved in the stabbing incident at Seohyeon Station, is responding to reporters' questions as he leaves the detention center of Seongnam Sujeong Police Station and heads to the transport vehicle for transfer to the prosecution. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

Choi wrote in the letter, "Since middle school, I have had a timid personality and experienced great difficulties in interpersonal relationships. When I go to crowded places, I have symptoms where I cannot speak well, my thoughts become confused, and I feel severe anxiety."

He claimed that his social phobia became so severe that social life was impossible, and he dropped out of high school within a month of enrollment. He added, "After dropping out, I fought with my parents and our relationship deteriorated, cutting off communication. I communicated with the world through internet communities to relieve my sense of isolation."

He continued, "At that time, I was like a fox that could not reach the grapes on a tree and rationalized that the grapes must be sour. Unable to properly adapt to society, I developed hatred and rebellion against society itself," and "I vented by writing posts cursing society or expressing a desire to harm people."

He also claimed to have suffered from paranoia while living alone. He said, "For several months, organized stalking began against me everywhere I lived and was active ? including local residents, neighborhoods, stores, internet communities, and games ? and severe harassment started," adding, "Thinking I could be killed at any time, I decided to kill the people at Seohyeon AK Plaza, where I witnessed the most stalkers."

He wrote, "I knew that not all the victims were stalkers. I will not suspect the victims of being stalkers and will consider all of them innocent victims," and "The victims may or may not have been stalkers."

Choi said, "I have heard that crimes involving weapons increased because of my crime. I hope that people who read my letter of remorse and are thinking about committing crimes using weapons will reconsider and refrain from committing crimes," and "Even for the rest of my life, I want to repair the negative impact I caused on society and spread positive influence."

He also expressed the hardships of detention life. "Even after just one month in detention, it is hard and painful. Thinking about having to live like this for decades breaks my mind and feels like torture. It reminds me of my childhood when I ate with my family and cursed and criticized criminals on TV. I regret not actively treating my social phobia as my parents advised," he wrote.

Experts who reviewed the letter’s contents assessed that Choi is more interested in reducing his sentence than in genuine remorse.

Choi Won-jong is accused of driving a vehicle toward pedestrians in front of AK Plaza department store in Seohyeon-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam City, connected to Seohyeon Station on the Suin-Bundang Line, at around 5:56 p.m. on the 3rd, then getting out of the car with a weapon and wildly swinging it at citizens. This resulted in 2 deaths and 12 injuries.

The police believe that Choi, who had not received any psychiatric treatment since 2020, committed the crime due to paranoia.

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