Korean Student in Moscow in Critical Condition After Attack

A Korean student in Moscow is in critical condition after being the victim of an apparent hate crime.

He was attacked by a masked assailant in the Russian capital Sunday amid a rise in the number of racially motivated attacks against foreigners in Russia.

The Korean Foreign Ministry and the Korean Embassy in Moscow said yesterday that the 29-year-old student was stabbed in the neck at a shopping mall in a new residential area in western Moscow. He was a junior at a state-run film college.

The man, identified by his last name Shim, was taken to a city hospital immediately after the attack, and is reportedly in critical condition.

“Shim underwent successful blood vessel surgery but remains in critical condition. Relying on a respirator for breathing, he needs to be closely monitored for about three days,” a ministry official said.

Shim went to Moscow to study about six years ago after graduating high school and finishing his compulsory military duty in Korea. After attending church Sunday, he headed for a karaoke box to celebrate a friend’s birthday along with four other Koreans and another Korean student there.

Eyewitnesses said Shim was stabbed in his neck by an attacker wearing a white mask when he walked about 10 meters after parting with his friends.

This is the second attack on an ethnic Korean in Russia this year. An exchange student was beaten to death Feb. 15 in the Siberian city of Barnaul, the capital of the Altai region, by three Russian youths.

A Foreign Ministry official said, “Some say the attacks were committed by skinheads but whom and why remain unknown,” adding, “We’ve requested Russian authorities to conduct a prompt probe and redouble efforts to prevent a recurrence.”

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