Hammer-wielding clash throws Seoul's rent problem in spotlight

Yoon Kyung-ja, owner of Gungjung Jokbal, breaks out into tears at a press briefing outside the Seoul Central District Court, after the judge gave her husband a two-and-a-half year jail sentence, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon

By Lee Suh-yoon

The assault happened on the morning of June 7. The owner of a small jokbal pig feet restaurant in Seochon in central Seoul, named Gungjung Jokbal, chased after his landlord with a 1.5-kilogram hammer, causing him injuries that require 12 weeks of treatment — mainly to the arms — in the resulting scuffle.

The prosecution demanded Kim, the restaurant owner, be given a seven-year jail term for “attempted murder.” And on Thursday, the Seoul Central District Court delivered its verdict on a case that has become symbolic of the brewing tension between tenants and landlords here.

In consideration of the jury's opinion, which recognized the use of violence was wrong but that Kim did not commit attempted murder, the judge sentenced Kim to two and a half years in jail.

The controversy first started in December 2015, when the new owner of the building, Lee, demanded Kim pay monthly rent of 12 million won ($10,700) — over four times the previous level and well above the average rent in the area — or vacate the shop.

The current law only guarantees commercial building tenants the right to demand a “fair” contract renewal within the first five years of moving in. Kim, who opened the restaurant in 2009, was left with no choice but to pack up and start over elsewhere.

Kim resisted for months, nearly having four of his fingers torn off in a conflict with subcontracted workers sent by Lee. After he was finally evicted on June 4, he exchanged a barrage of insults with the landlord over the phone and went searching for him with a hammer.

Lee owns 14 buildings worth over 30 billion won in market value.

Kim swings a hammer at his landlord, Lee, at a street in Gangnam district, Seoul, in this CCTV footage from June 7, 2018. / Yonhap

The defendant's side called the ruling “unacceptable.“

“A person (Kim) who hates violence was pushed to the edge to commit a violent act, while the person (Lee) who bullied and ignored him for over seven months can simply walk away with no penalty,” Yoon Kyung-ja, Kim's wife, told reporters outside the courthouse. “My husband and I had no choice but to resist because there was no other way for us to sustain our livelihood.”

The verdict also drew criticism from other small business owners, who say they need a minimum 10 years of state protection from landlords in renewing their rental contracts.

“It usually takes around four to five years for a restaurant to settle down in a neighborhood and draw regular customers,“ Samie Kim, head of the group Mamsangmo (People's Solidarity for Doing Business without Constraint or Being Evicted), told The Korea Times. “In fact, almost 80 percent of small businesses who call us for advice are struggling with renewing their contracts on reasonable terms after five years.”

The rent price of small shops in Seoul has been on the rise, increasing by 12.6 percent over the last two years up to around 52,000 won per square meter in 2017, according to industry estimates.

“A shop of the second floor of that same building rents out for 3 million won a month, so how can a first-floor space charge the same?” Lee lashed out at the defendant's lawyers during the court hearing on Wednesday, when they asked him why he raised the rent so high.

Members of Mamsangmo, a civic group that advocates commercial tenants' rights, blocks the court baliff and security guards from enforcing an eviction of Gungjung Jokbal at Seochon, central Seoul, on January 15, 2018. / Yonhap

A sluggish economy also seems to have driven the fissure between small businesses and their landlords deeper.

Only around 27 percent of small businesses survive longer than five years, according to the most recent data from Statistics Korea. This figure is particularly low — around 18 percent — among lodging and restaurant businesses.

Better protections for small business tenants, however, seem unlikely at the moment. Rival political parties failed recently to agree on a bill that could revise the tenant's contract renewal protection period from the current five years to 10.

Thirty similar bills remain stuck in the National Assembly.

Kim Nam-ju, a Minbyun lawyer who was in charge of the defense, said such conflicts will continue without better protection of tenants.

“There needs to be a social compromise, not just between the victim and the accused, but better mediation in the general sociopolitical sphere,” he said.