Prosecutors on Sunday said they have indicted the suspect of the stabbing death of a 22-year-old woman near the country's busiest subway station in Seoul, which prompted nationwide protests and debates over crimes against women.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said the man, surnamed Kim, is accused of stabbing the victim, whose identity was withheld, multiple times in a bathroom in a building near Gangnam Station in May. The victim was a complete stranger to Kim.

Kim waited for about 50 minutes for a woman to show up at the bathroom, according to prosecutors. When the victim came into the unisex restroom, Kim attacked her with a knife he had brought.

The crime was committed due to Kim's mental disease, prosecutors said, wrapping up their monthlong investigation. 

Kim has a record of being hospitalized for schizophrenia more than six times since 2009. Since he left the hospital for the last time in January, he had not taken his medication or received treatment and had lived on the streets since March, they said.

During the investigation, Kim said he had been suffering from stress because of women.

According to prosecutors, he said another unidentified woman threw a cigarette butt at him two days before the incident took place and made him decide to kill a random woman.

Still, prosecutors said they cannot define the case as a hate crime against women.

"Hate crimes against women is not a legal term, and it is hard for us to say whether this case goes under the category or not when there is no fixed definition of what that is," a senior prosecutor said under the condition of anonymity.

"The defendant does seem to have hostility and aggression against women in general, but we could not find evidence of him despising or discriminating against women," the prosecutor said.

The reason behind the general animosity has not been identified.

The case has sparked a nationwide debate over crimes targeting women in the country. Thousands of South Korean women took to the streets in May, paying their respects to the victim who "lost her life for being a woman."

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office, meanwhile, said it will intensify punishment for crimes against women and other vulnerable members of society. (Yonhap)