Police arrested a 45-year-old man in Suwon, south of Seoul, Wednesday, who had been on the run since Saturday, the first day of the three-day Lunar New Year holiday.
He was charged with stabbing two brothers to death in a dispute over noise in an apartment building in Seoul. When the murder took place, the man, surnamed Kim, was visiting his girlfriend who lived on the sixth floor of the building, while the brothers, both in their 30s, were visiting their parents who lived above her. They quarreled over noise levels and loud footsteps, which caused the brothers to meet their tragic deaths.
In a separate incident, a 49-year-old man was detained on charges of firebombing a neighbor’s home in Mok-dong, western Seoul, on Sunday, also after arguments over noise. Six members of the victimized family were badly burned and it was found later that the two households had been embroiled in disputes over noise for the last four years.
Neighborly feuds over noise seem trivial but the pain is beyond description if one actually grapples with the problem. This is all the more serious in Korea where people living in multi-unit dwellings such as apartments account for nearly 65 percent of the population, compared with 40 percent in Japan, 18 percent in Britain and 3.9 percent in the United States. The ratio in Seoul even reaches 83 percent.
It’s generally learned that children’s footsteps are the most frequent cause of noise travelling between floors. According to the Ministry of Environment, a total of 7,021 noise complaints were lodged with its consultation center between March last year, when it opened, and December.
While disputes between neighbors over noise have been on a sharp rise, the authorities ― regrettably ― have done little to tackle the problem. What has been done was to raise the standard thickness for the bottom floor of an apartment building to 21 centimeters from 18 centimeters in 2005.
It’s belated but encouraging that both central and local governments have become more proactive in addressing neighborly noise issues after the tragic incidents. The construction ministry needs to strengthen regulations on apartment construction to prevent disputes in advance. For those in existing apartments, the permissible noise level between floors must be lowered.
What is needed most is for our society to reclaim a community spirit so that residents can resolve disputes autonomously. Nothing seems more important than neighbors caring for each other in this combative society.