Asian woman grabs Western woman's clothing in altercation

Video and eyewitness accounts spread online

This image is for illustrative purposes only and is not directly related to the incident. [Image generated by AI]
This image is for illustrative purposes only and is not directly related to the incident. [Image generated by AI]

A physical altercation between foreign women at a large shopping mall near Hongik University Station in Seoul prompted security guards to intervene.

A video showing an Asian woman and a Western woman fighting was posted to an online community forum Tuesday.

In the footage, the Asian woman grabs the Western woman's clothing, pulls her forcefully and shouts at her. She also appears to appeal to bystanders for help, seemingly with limited Korean proficiency.

The Western woman, who was accompanied by a child in a stroller, tried to flee while crying out "Help me," but the Asian woman refused to release her grip, shouting "Don't go" in Korean.

The confrontation was not brought under control until shopping mall security guards stepped in. Once the situation was resolved, the Western woman picked up her child and left.

The reason for the altercation has not been established. However, one online commenter who claimed to have witnessed the incident wrote that the Asian woman was Chinese and the Western woman was French. According to the commenter, the Western woman made remarks including "Koreans hate Chinese people" and "the whole world hates Chinese people" in response to something the Asian woman had done, prompting the Asian woman to lunge at her and triggering the physical confrontation. The commenter also said police arrived at the scene, separated the two women and conducted an investigation.

The nationalities of the two women, the exact words exchanged, and the cause and circumstances of the fight are based solely on the video and eyewitness accounts circulating online and have not been confirmed through a police investigation.

Meanwhile, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea stood at 777,000 in July, up 29 percent from 600,000 a year earlier, according to statistics the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute published Monday in its "International Tourism Trends 2026, No. 8" report. Chinese nationals accounted for 37.1 percent of the 2.093 million foreign visitors to South Korea that month.


jshan@heraldcorp.com