Our follow-up to Cruel Summer shows Korea’s August crimes were just as horrific. A shaman murdered her niece in a ritual. Couples turned their homes into crime scenes. Babies were abandoned for cash. Convenience store clerks were stabbed for no reason. This summer didn’t cool down. It only got darker.

       

 

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Cruel Summer 2: Crueler Summerer

If you thought July was bad, August said, “Hold my soju.” Korea’s cruel summer didn’t end with heat waves and floods. The crimes piled up, and each one managed to outdo the last in cruelty. Babies sold off, shamans killing relatives, convenience store workers stabbed, and marital fights that left apartments in flames. Welcome to the sequel no one wanted.

Babies for Sale

In Busan, a couple in their 40s were sentenced for abandoning not one but two newborns. The first baby was handed off in 2013 to strangers found online. The second, in 2018, was literally exchanged for 288,000 won to cover hospital fees. These weren’t formal adoptions. They were back-alley transfers of human lives.

The court gave the man a short prison term plus another year for unrelated crimes including fraud and forgery. The woman got a suspended sentence. Both were barred from working around children for three years. A slap on the wrist considering they sold their own kids like used phones.

Murder by Ritual

Incheon prosecutors indicted a 70-something shaman and her followers for killing her niece. The niece tried to quit working for her aunt. Instead, she was tied down and “purified” by charcoal smoke for three hours. She died the next day.

The aunt had manipulated her circle for years, convincing them that offerings and rituals could fix real-world problems. The prosecution is seeking a life sentence. This is a reminder that Korea’s shamanic traditions are real and fascinating, but the fringe cults around them can be lethal.

Convenience Store Bloodbath

In August, a man stabbed a female clerk at a convenience store multiple times. There was no fight. No motive. CCTV showed him walk in, attack, and run. He hid near a river before being caught. The only thin connection: his husband had once owned the store and had a dispute with the new owner. The victim wasn’t even involved. Wrong place, wrong shift.

Marital Disputes, Nuclear Edition

August brought a series of spousal fights that spiraled into horror.

• Geoje: A wife poured gasoline around the living room during an argument and set the apartment ablaze. Both spouses were burned. More than fifty neighbors were evacuated.
• Yangsan: Police arrived to find a stabbed wife inside and her husband dead outside from a leap. No record of prior abuse. The argument that night turned deadly.
• Changwon: A man suspected his divorcing wife of cheating. He stabbed her to death, called police, confessed, and then jumped from the third floor. He survived and was sentenced to 22 years.

Another Stabbing in a Parking Lot

A Chinese national filed a police report against a Korean man but declined protection. Days later he stabbed her in an underground parking garage. CCTV caught everything. He ditched his car in Hongcheon and fled into the mountains. Police dogs tracked him down. Another case where a system meant to protect failed at the exact moment it was needed.

Why “Crueler Summerer” Fits

Korea’s August crime spree shows how pressure, poverty, and untreated rage keep boiling over. Abandoned babies point to weak social safety nets. A shaman’s murder exposes how belief can be twisted into control. Random stabbings highlight how violence spills into public spaces. And family disputes that escalate into fire and bloodshed remind us that homes are not always safe havens.

The season may be over, but the stories linger. Korea’s cruel summer was not a one-off. It looks more like the new normal.