The incident took place on April 23 in the London suburb of New Malden, when a group of four Caucasian teenagers on bicycles shouted racial slurs at a Korean exchange student, a 25-year-old man identified as Chun. Chun approached them to demand an apology, but the teens fled. A little while later, however, one of the teenagers, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, returned armed with a hammer, grabbed Chun by the throat, threatened him and struck him on the side of his head with the hammer. A Korean witness at the scene took a picture of the situation with his cell phone camera.

Blood flowing from his head, Chun was taken to nearby Kingston Hospital, where it took six stitches to close the wound. Two of Chun's friends overpowered the assailant and turned him over to police, but he was released on bail the same day.

Chun went to the U.K., where he attends a seminary, in late 2001. Believing that his assailant was not sufficiently repentant, he refused talks with his side and filed charges. On Aug. 3, however, he was informed that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided to drop the case due to insufficient evidence. "We had detailed testimony from witnesses, the hammer and photos taken at the time, so claiming a lack of evidence is not persuasive," a spokesman for Chun said. He added the suspicion that Chun was disadvantaged because he belonged to an ethnic minority.

Earlier, the Korean community in Britain was greatly upset when a court sentenced a British man to no more than five years in prison for killing his Korean wife and dismembering her body with a chainsaw.

(englishnews@chosun.com )