What would you have done?

I would have just kept walking and not let her bring me into the store. She's old and is probably physically incapable of actually holding you; I'm stronger than that. Just ignore her.

Barring that, I would have done what you did.

Do you live in Korea? In Busan? What is the nature of your stay (I ask because most people asking questions on here are travelers from out-of-country).

Dude, dont let people control you off the street.

Well, I thought the lady was just excited to show me some more pants in her store.It's not unusual in Korea for people to grab you and pull you by your arm when the can't communicate.

Boy did I get a surprise!

Reading on the internet, I noticed that Korea is experiencing a mental health crisis which might help explain why everyone was acting so strange. I read that Korea has the highest suicide rate among OECD countries.and that mental illness is so widespread that starting next year everyone has to respond to a mandatory mental health survey. Whew!

The lesson for travelers is that sometimes the different behavior we attribute to differences in culture could really be someone with a bad case of "koo koo"!

It all sounds very surreal.

I would've just kept walking too or I would call the U.S. embassy or anyone who could translate if i could use a phone. Apparently, you had no choice..She is so rude. I hate thoes old people.. do you remember the name or location of the store? I wanna post it on the Korean website. She should've apologized you properly.
Anyway, I don't it's something to do with Korean's mental illness, she's just one disrepectful woman. There are many people suffering from stress related illnesses and the reason why Korea has the highest suicide rate among OECD countries is because of the policy. Korean people are under a lot of stress. They don't have they lives so many people are working from morning till late at night. They need to maintain balanced lives and try to prevent stress but
they can't because even though they work from morning till late at night it's not enough to pay all the living expenses..
anyway.. i hate these things happening to foreigners in Korea cause I've been living in other country for 10 years since i was young. I kinda know how it feels to experience these things..

Edited by: 1989k

If they didn't speak English, how did they tell you to 'shut up'?

I was curious, too. When the police officer said "shut up" I wondered whether he could speak English, but I was told after I filed a complaint that's a common expression they know and none of the officers could speak English. So they just ignored me. The situation could have been avoided if they had just allowed me to make a quick phone call, instead of allowing an irrational shop keeper to control the situation.