A Korean lone wolf

In a negative connotation, a lone wolf refers to an individual who commits a terrorist attack outside a group nowadays, quite different from what it used to mean. Leon Trotsky’s nickname was a “lonely wolf.” Unlike Lenin, Trotsky did not try to control any organization. He did not attempt to change people with orders by using the power of organization. Rather, he tried to persuade people with his words and writings. He himself was not obedient to any organization and eventually assassinated with an axe by a killer sent by Stalin.

At a glance, a lone wolf sounds paradoxical. Wolves generally move in groups. They like to prey on large mammals, which they cannot hunt alone. When they become a certain age, they have to leave their group to create his own group. It is the toughest time for wolves. If they can create a new group by mating an opposite gender, it would be fine. However, if they cannot, lonely wolves would gather together and create a more ferocious group.

If it is confirmed that the 18-year-old Korean student who went missing in Kilis, a Turkish city bordering Syria, joined the Islamic State, he would be the first Korean “lone wolf,” a homegrown Muslim terrorist. Unlike Al Qaeda, the Islamic State gathers participants from all across the world using social networking sites. Some 15,000 foreigners joined the Islamic State, according to the CIA. It is said that the group has around 100 Chinese and about 10 Japanese people.

The Korean student quit middle school because he had problems with friends. He studied alone for the qualification exam for college entrance. He might have been closer to Hasan in Turkey to whom he talked in a secret social networking site than his parents or friends. He might have been attracted to something intense while seeking the meaning of life alone in a society where there seems to be little hope. We do not know what it was. However, it is ominous that the power of the Islamic State seems to be reaching the Far East like the magnetic field of Sauron, the absolute evil in the "Lord of the Rings."