The Nonhyeon-dong massacre was a mass murder that occurred in Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea on October 20, 2008, when 30-year-old Jeong Sang-jin (정상진) set fire to a goshiwon and slashed several women with a sashimi knife.
[3][4][5] At about 8:15 a.m., according to police, Jeong, who lived on the third floor of a four-story gosiwon, a low-cost lodging facility, poured gasoline on his bed and set it ablaze.
Dressed all in black, wearing a headlamp, and hiding his face with a balaclava and goggles, he emerged from his smoke-filled room and, armed with a sashimi knife, two fruit-knives strapped to his legs, and a tear gas gun in a belt holster, began slashing and stabbing the residents of the building who were fleeing the fire.
[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Jeong Sang-jin, originally from Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, moved to Seoul in 2002, where he scratched a living with part-time jobs as food delivery man or parking valet, though as of April 2008 he was unemployed and had to face severe financial difficulties.
[15][16][14] The incident sparked memories of the Daegu subway fire and the arson of the Namdaemun the same year, as well as the Akihabara massacre that happened just a few months earlier in Japan.