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staff photographer)

“If she was killed just for being a woman, then I’m also just one more person who is lucky to be alive on this street,” the sticky note said. It was just one of hundreds of such notes, each written by a different person, that covered the outside of exit 10 of Gangnam Station in Seoul, along with chrysanthemums that had been placed on the ground.

The messages expressed mourning for a woman in her 20s who was murdered by a man she had never seen before in a bathroom located in a building near Gangnam Station early in the morning of May 17.

The post-it note memorial was launched by a Twitter user who argued that the incident, which the media had depicted as a pointless murder, was obviously inspired by misogyny.

When a man in his 30s (only identified by the surname of Kim) stabbed to death a woman he had never seen before on May 17, he explained he had done it because he had been looked down on by women he had worked with, but the media reported the case as a random murder.

after the May 17 murder. (by Kim Bong-kyu

One individual who read these reports set up a Twitter account called “A public discussion of the Gangnam Station murder incident” (@0517am1). “It’s time for our society to answer for violence against women and the murder of women. Let’s all mourn the victim by bringing chrysanthemums and putting up sticky notes at exit 10 of Gangnam Station,” this individual tweeted.

The message spread like wildfire on social media – by May 18, it had been retweeted more than 6,200 times – and people crowded to Gangnam Station on Thursday to pay their respects to the victim of the hate crime against women.

Post-it notes to the Gangnam murder victim at exit 10 of Gangnam Station

In online communities, there are signs that people will go beyond morning to take action both online and offline to raise awareness of hate crimes against women.

On the Facebook page MERS Gallery Storage Space 3, one user suggested searching for “male murderer at Gangnam” on Naver between 5 and 6 pm on Thursday in order to put the issue on Naver’s list of currently trending search terms and bring attention to the fact that this was not just a random murder as portrayed in the media but rather a hate crime against women. Another user proposed holding a candlelight vigil at Gangnam Street on the evening of May 21 in memory of [the victim of] this hate crime against women.

While the news that Kim claimed he had committed the crime because women had looked down on him has created a public stir, more reporting is needed to confirm that the murder was motivated by misogyny.

“There are records that Kim has been hospitalized four times since 2008 because of schizophrenia and panic attacks. It’s too early to conclude that the murder was random or that it was a hate crime against women, as people are saying,” the Seocho Police Department in Seoul said on Thursday.

The Seocho Police Department is the one that is currently investigating the murder. On Thursday, the court issued an arrest warrant for Kim on charges of murder.

By Ko Han-sol and Park Su-ji, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]