by Pino Cazzaniga

Social changes are causing rising tensions. About 40 per cent of young people would leave the country if they could. Homeless riot whilst the number of suicide is on the rise.

Seoul (AsiaNews) – The inability to adapt to a rapidly changing society, economic recession and unemployment are the main causes of social marginalisation in South Korea. Rioting homeless men in Seoul railway station and a rising suicide rate are but two sides of the same coin. Suicide  is becoming so alarming that police are patrolling bridges in Seoul to prevent people from jumping.

A government-sponsored study shows rising levels of hopelessness among South Koreans. About 40 per cent of young people would leave the country if they could.

At present, people are still talking about the January 22 clashes between police and the homeless in Seoul's train station.

The incident involved some 100 homeless people smashing station furniture and forcing passengers to flee. The stand-off with police began after the discovery of two vagrants in the station, one dead, the other dying. The rioters blamed both deaths on police brutality.

Although the accusation proved to be baseless—one man died of cirrhosis of the lever, the other of pneumonia—it took 250 police officers several hours to bring the situation under control without causing injuries. After the riot was over the homeless were allowed back into the station to shelter overnight.

If the police are innocent of these deaths, South Korea's government and society are necessarily so. The homeless' anger is a sign of a deeper malaise in the country.

In its editorial page, Joongang daily wrote: "It seems that the phenomenon of long-term homelessness as is found in more advanced countries has started in our country as well".

This is backed by official data. According to the Seoul Metropolitan in fact there are some 2,900 homeless people in the city. Many of them are not your typical old men on the skids but people in their 20s and 30s as well families that include women and children under the age of 20.

Homelessness is not then only problem facing the country. In the 80s South Korean journalists referred to the country's economic miracle as the 'Han River miracle' after the wide body of water that runs through the capital. Now special units of the police must patrol the bridges that span the river to prevent those desperate enough to jump. Suicide is now the leading cause of death among the 20-30 age group.

A few days after the train station riot, South Korean Presdient Rooh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi attended a concert in a concert hall not far from the station to celebrate the 40the anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Both locations are symbolic of the contradictions of the last 40 years: unprecedented economic growth and rising social tensions.

Social tensions are however largely caused by a spiritual vacuum. In the last decades South Korea has followed Japan's lead not only in importing capital and technologies but also the ideal of wealth as life's main goal.

It is well-known that the Empire of the Rising Sun holds the record for suicides in Asia: 33,000 per year.

Fortunately for South Korea, Christianity has also grown by leaps and bounds.

Seoul's Cathedral which rises on Myongdong hill not far from the station has become for many a symbol and source of hope.

• south
• korea
• society
• poverty
• industry
• development
• economy
• malaise
• marginalisation