Loss of young lives

By Min Seong-jae

I am heartbroken by the recent losses of young lives, all of which occurred in the span of a couple of weeks. One, a 23-year-old elementary school teacher in Seoul's uber-competitive school district took her own life in her classroom, reportedly due to the burdens associated with dealing with demanding parents. Another, a 20-year-old Marine, who was doing search and rescue operations for victims of heavy rains in Yecheon County of North Gyeongsang Province, was swept away and killed by a torrent. The soldier was engaged in the operation without safety gear. And in a Costco outlet in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, a 29-year-old employee died of heatstroke after working all day in the outlet's parking lot managing shopping carts.

These deaths are heartbreaking not just because of the victims' age, but also because of the manner in which they happened. Surely, they are different, as one is suicide and the others are accidents. And the exact details and circumstances are still under investigation. But what's common behind those cases is that the victims were at the bottom of the social totem pole and were vulnerable to various types of dangers and abuses.

School teachers in Korea are in a role no longer desirable. They are in a 3D ― dirty, difficult and dangerous ― job today. According to the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, physical violence against teachers is increasing with more than 300 cases reported last year. That's the official number alone. Ask teachers, and unofficial stories of threats, mockery, insults and abuse by parents, students and school management abound. The young female teacher just out of college was placed in one of the most demanding and competitive school districts in Korea and was reportedly facing heavy pressure from overly entitled parents. She didn't receive any help. She went through agonizing emotional suffering, according to circumstantial evidence.

Violence, torture, accidents, and mysterious deaths in the Korean military is well documented. Things have improved over the years, but the military is still the hotbed of human rights abuses. The drowning death of the marine was not an accident. It was a death caused by the Marine Corps' negligence. A simple life jacket could have saved the young soldier's life, but he was dispatched to do rescue work in a dangerous stream with bare hands. What could a soldier, deployed for barely two months, do other than obey the order?

It was reported that the worker at the supermarket logged 43,000 steps in 10 hours under the excessive summer heat of Seoul. I don't know whether he was working overtime because he chose to do so or his complaints to management fell upon deaf ears. No matter what, the fact that a person had to work such long hours under such extreme conditions shows the ugly face of exploitative capitalism.

These kinds of industrial accidents, usually common in underdeveloped countries, continue to reoccur in modern Korea. Just last year, a 23-year-old woman operating a machine in Paris Baguette factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, was killed after being pulled into and crushed by the machine. It is said that the female worker solely operated the machine that usually required a two-person crew for safety and that the factory didn't stop operation even after the freakish accident that day. The machine just had to keep running to produce bread and make a profit. Likewise, the Costco worker just had to keep moving the shopping carts so that the supermarket could continue generating revenue.

There will probably be a lot more unreported deaths and accidents involving the young and vulnerable population happening around Korea. The thing is that they are caused not so much by individuals as much as structural issues. Korean society and organizations, public or private, lack the support systems and necessary care for marginalized populations. Bureaucratic callousness and cheap capitalist logic drive the vulnerable to their untimely demise. Without structural reform and necessary regulations, we may keep hearing such unfortunate news. For now, I just hope they rest in peace.

Min Seong-jae is a professor of communication and media studies at Pace University, New York City. He is a 2023-24 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Korea.