By This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has spent a while living in Korea:
More than one-third of South Koreans believe violence is more effective than the law or verbal negotiation, a survey shows.
The disturbing trend was revealed Thursday by the Korean Institute of Criminology. More than 37 percent of about 1,500 people surveyed said that in many cases physical violence is a viable means of solving problems.
The survey also found that one out of every five South Koreans believes in “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
Yeon Sung-jin, the report’s chief researcher, said that Korean people often put more faith in the power of violence than they realize. [Yonhap]
You have got to love that picture from Yonhap included with the article. 
5:24 pm on February 13th, 2009 1
This doesn't surprise me in the least.
At the same time, Korean's love to say how violent Americans are, but I wonder what the murder rate would be like in Korea if gun ownership was permitted.
Eventhough I disagree with gun ownership all together, I do think that most Americans are pretty responsible with them. Just imagine what Korea would be like.
6:34 pm on February 13th, 2009 2
Here is some food for thought: It is much worse in North Korea. What impact will this have on the South when the two Koreas are eventually semi-united? If you doubt me, read Kang Chol-hwan’s autobiography The Aquariums of Pyongyang. He grew up in the North and spent ten years of his childhood and adolescence in a North Korean gulag.
6:44 pm on February 13th, 2009 3
"The survey also found that one out of every five South Koreans believes in an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
I would imagine at least the same number (if not more) of Americans think this way.
7:58 pm on February 13th, 2009 4
They must appreciate each others special and unique situation. I suspect they fight because Corea has 4 seasons.
8:08 pm on February 13th, 2009 5
Correction: "The survey also found that one out of every five South Koreans believes in 'an eye for an eyelash, a tooth for toothing off.'"
11:55 pm on February 13th, 2009 6
"More than one-third of South Koreans believe violence is more effective than the law or verbal negotiation" Do they mean violence in general or violence to protest against something? This could be more of a vote against the law (which goes very easy on criminals – esp. rapist),
than support for violence against others. Even though the survey indicated Koreans support violence over the law and verbal negotiation, my own personal experience/view is that Koreans may be violent with close family members, they rarely become violent outside the family. Verbal arguements occur and maybe a little pushing, but rarely fists. I think they are afraid of being sued. If the population density in American was as dense as Korea, I think we would have a major problem. Actually, I am amazed at how non-violent Koreans are given how crowded it is.
1:28 am on February 14th, 2009 7
After 12 years in country, I'm surprised that the only violence I've seen on the streets as been husbands beating their wives. Even when two guys scream at each other after a fender-bender, they remain composed and used the polite-forms of language. It's pretty impressive.
10:57 am on February 14th, 2009 8
The part about continuing to us polite language forms while arguing with someone seems odd to an American (or probably most Westerners).
The thing with the Korean language ~ if you start using impolite language forms, it reflects more poorly on you than it does the person with whom you're arguing. In other words, it's not so much a put-down to the person to whom they are directed as it is to the person that is saying them.
You can yell and scream at someone all you want – and it won't necessarily be undignified……….unless you start using the impolite language forms.
1:55 pm on February 14th, 2009 9
I wonder what the results would be if the same survey were carried out in a few other countries. That statistic sounds pretty high, but I wonder if the States or Canada (where I'm from) would fare much differently.
7:56 pm on December 14th, 2011 10
That comes as no surprise to me, because 37% of Koreans who beleive in violence to solve problems is a truth that I would except whether I am Korean or not. But what they did not specify is whether or not most of the Koreans in that poll who support violence are men or women. I would have to conclude that Korean men are mostly like that because most Korean men have a reputaion of being brutal to their wives. Not to mention how Korean boys like to engage into making violent visual art. I know because I worked in Korea for 3 years and a lot fo Korean boys as early as grade 3 are violent minded. They make paper art in the shape of weapons, they can draw machine guns, and they like to draw pictures that represents the condoning of bloody violence. I used to watch movies on channel OCN and I can tell you for sure that Koreans sell their movies using violence more than sex. Unlike the Japanese films I saw that use more sex than violence. I would rather take the sex over violence because sex is pro-life, violence is a destructor of life. I guess that when it comes to violence some Koreans haven`t learned their lessons from their bloody past.
8:44 pm on December 14th, 2011 11
Yes Koreans are so violent. I mean look at Korea. Just look at it. You can’t even walk the streets at night without getting mugged or getting shot at or held up. Everywhere you look there is crime and more crime! Koreans are practically genetically born violent criminal race. The murder rate is horrible where people are getting killed on the streets with drive by shootings and stabbings. You can’t even park your car for 15 minutes before it’s gone. I mean how can you even compare with America? Koreans are violent savages. Really.
8:47 pm on December 14th, 2011 12
Furthermore, look at the American prisons. You will never see black or white prisoners in there. Most of them are all violent criminal Koreans. Koreans are violent, just look at the way they delight in starting wars in the Middle East.
1:54 am on December 15th, 2011 13
Tom wrote:
You mean Koreans like the guy from Virginia Tech who murdered 32 students and faculty?