Koreans study all over the world on short- and long-term programmes to learn languages and attend general and specialised courses. From elementary to college level, these young students visiting or residing on all continents get valuable experiences of overseas life, exposing themselves to various kinds of cultural adventures, which could sometimes accompany physical risks.

There were occasional reports of violent incidents involving Korean students abroad, but their frequency was not of the level that caused too much concern. Yet, the recent series of attacks on Korean students in Russia is particularly alarming because it bears the hallmarks of hate crime, rather than simple robbery.

Last month in the Siberian city of Barnaul, the capital of the Altai region, a group of young Russians beat to death a male Korean student from Gwangju who was on a language programme. The Russian police arrested three youths in connection with the attack in which the authorities have found no motivation of stealing money, according to Korean diplomats. On March 7 in a new residential zone in Moscow, a masked man stabbed a Korean student in the neck and fled. The 29-year-old victim remains in critical condition after receiving surgery.

These unprovoked attacks have caused the roughly 2,000 Korean students in Russia to fear further racially motivated assaults. The Korean embassy in Moscow asked the Russian authorities to ensure better security for the large number of Korean students, but we cannot expect any extraordinary steps from them, as they are already heavily burdened with a rising crime rate.

Individual caution is the best way to evade mishaps. The Korean embassy, for its part, should provide up-to-date security information for Korean residents and students so that they can seek personal safety in commuting and engaging in social activities outside schools or homes. The embassy is at the moment advised against additionally designating any part of the country for travel restriction as such a measure could generally hamper business or other necessary activities by Koreans in Russia.