A woman wielding a knife minorly injured 35-year-old Korean stage actor, TV host, and K-pop singer Cho Kyu-hyun, popularly known as Kyuhyun, after she intruded into the backstage area of a theater in western Seoul Sunday night.
In a statement on X, Kyuhyun’s label Antenna said the incident occurred after the final performance of the Korean-language musical Ben-Hur, in which the idol most famous as a member of boyband Super Junior, played a lead role. The show had run at the LG Arts Center Seoul since Sept. 2.
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Local media reported that a woman in her 30s entered the actors’ dressing area at around 6 p.m. local time on Nov. 19 and brandished a knife in front of multiple actors. Kyuhyun reportedly tried to restrain the assailant and his finger was cut in the process.
“He was immediately treated on the spot and is currently in good health,” the label’s statement said.
Police arrested the assailant, who remains unnamed, the same day and are currently investigating her motive. Authorities said she has no connection to Kyuhyun or the other stage actors and, according to the Korea Herald, the woman never stalked the actors before.
In August, the country grew anxious due to a series of seemingly random, unexplained stabbings, which have been referred to by the public as mudjima (which translates to “don’t ask why”) crimes. These attacks committed against apparent strangers had no clear motives.
While crime rates are relatively low in the East Asian country and arrests for violent crime have decreased in Seoul over the last decade, the rise in recent mudjima crimes has renewed public discourse over ongoing and unresolved issues of social inequality and mental health access.
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