On Nov 15, a forty-something Korean woman living in Incheon west of Seoul ended up in a coma after being stabbed in the neck. The culprit was a 48-year-old male neighbor who had been fighting with her and her husband over noise.
Two months before that, a man in the southern port city of Yeosu used a knife to kill the couple living above him in the apartment building. The given reason was, again, noise.
Complaints over noise in apartment buildings have become a defining feature of the Covid pandemic in Korea. The ubiquitous high-rise residential towers have long been criticized for substandard soundproofing. As more people spend time at home, disputes stemming from unwanted sounds have gone through the roof.