146 violent crimes between 2023-25 had no clear motive

There were 146 recorded violent attacks with no clear motive from 2023 to 2025, police records showed Sunday, with 87 percent of them taking place in shopping malls, the streets, subway stations, and other crowded public places.

The annual number of "abnormal motive crimes" — in which the attacker has no clear motive or connection with the victim — declined over the period, from 46 in 2023, 42 in 2024, and 39 in 2025, according to National Police Agency data revealed by Rep. Kim Yea-ji of the main opposition People Power Party.

Of them, 59 involved the assailant using a sharp object such as a knife.

Such attacks were called "mutjima," or "don't ask" crimes until 2022, when police began using the new name. The following year, Police set standards to define "abnormal motive crimes and began an official tally of them.

Last Tuesday's indiscriminate knife attack at a commercial complex in Incheon is believed to be one such case. The attacker had no personal connection to any of the eight people he injured. He claimed to have committed the crime because of his personal discontent of a medical treatment he received at a hospital.

Measures to prevent this time of crime include criminalization of possessing weapons in a public place, and risk assessments on people identified as potential perpetrators. The assessment includes evaluation of the subject's violent nature, mental status, and, in the case of a conviction, the likelihood of a repeat offense.

But no risk assessment was carried out on the Incheon assailant, even after he was investigated by police for possessing a weapon while protesting in front of a hospital last month.

Not all "abnormal motive" crimes stay in that category. Some cases have been reclassified after a motive was found.

Jang Yoon-ki's May attack on two high school students in Gwangju, leading to death of the female victim, was previously thought to have been an attack on random strangers.

But an investigation by prosecutors found that he had planned to kidnap and rape the female victim, and killed her when she resisted. The male victim witnessed and attempted to stop the crime, and was injured in the process.

The same crime sparked a nationwide scandal when it was found that local police officers — including Jang's father and uncle — appeared to have tampered with evidence related to it.