This is something to keep in mind, in South Korea someone can accuse you of sexual harassment with no evidence and then demand money from you through the court system. If you don’t pay you could go to jail:
This closed circuit television footage shows the encounter inside a restaurant between a man and a woman after which the woman accused the man of grabbing her buttocks.
She said her husband had attended several court hearings until September without telling her. The plaintiff demanded the defendant pay 10 million won for settlement but he refused, trusting the court would acquit him.
The court’s ruling statement from Sept. 5 says the plaintiff “explained in a coherent manner how the defendant sexually harassed her” and that “the accused was not regretful of his wrongdoing and didn’t seem to want to seek forgiveness from the accuser.”
“I know the recent ‘#Metoo movement’ has made all sexually related issues very sensitive but, even as a woman, I cannot understand her and how she so easily turned an innocent man into a sexual harasser,” the wife said, criticizing Korean anti-sex crime laws that “lopsidedly supported women over men.” [Korea Times]
South Korean Culture Minister Do Jong-whan and foreign diplomats stationed in Seoul walk onto thej “Foot Bridge” during a visit to the Demilitarized Zone bisecting the two Koreas, north of Seoul, on Sep. 7, 2018, in this photo provided by the culture ministry. The bridge is where South and North Korea’s leaders strolled and talked during their summit on April 27. (Yonhap)
Here is another example that Americans in Korea should take note of, you don’t have the same right to self defense in the ROK as you would in the US:
A man has received a prison sentence for assaulting a driver who attacked him first.
The Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced the man, 39, to eight months in prison Saturday for retaliating against a driver, 52, who hit him first with a weapon after an argument about the driver’s driving style.
On the other hand, the court gave the driver a suspended prison sentence.
According to the prosecution, the driver hit the younger guy with a “blunt weapon” in anger last September after repeatedly being told to drive slowly.
But the younger man took the weapon from the driver and attacked him back with it, leaving the older man with injuries requiring six weeks of medical treatment.
The younger man claimed he acted in self-defense, but the court said he had other options, including simply running away from the situation. Judge Jang Dong-min said the behavior should be considered an assault that was obviously beyond what should be allowed under the self-defense law. [Korea Times]
The bottom line on self defense in Korea is that if you have to defend yourself, use as little force as possible even if someone is trying to kill you. There have been numerous examples over the years of victims of criminal activities being convicted by a Korean court for defending themselves. The self defense law is even worse for foreigners when the Korean assailant can just lie and the police will likely blame the foreigner for the altercation.
Here are a few examples involving USFK servicemembers:
The Moon administration is trying to get South Korean conservatives to attend the Inter-Korean Summit later this month in Pyongyang:
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Monday asked the parliamentary speaker and heads of all five political parties in South Korea to accompany President Moon Jae-in on his upcoming trip to the North.
The invitation came from Moon’s chief of staff Im Jong-seok, who currently heads a summit preparation committee.
The Moon-Kim summit is set to be held in Pyongyang from Sept. 18-20.
“The preparation committee for the 2018 Pyongyang summit seeks to invite National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang and vice speakers … as special parliamentary delegates,” Im told a press briefing.
The heads of all five major political parties, including Lee Hae-chan of the ruling Democratic Party and Kim Byong-jun of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), have also been invited.
Those invited also include Rep. Kang Seok-ho of the main opposition party, who currently serves as the chairman of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and unification. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the South Korean conservatives have declined the invitation calling it a political stunt:
The LKP criticized the government’s proposal as a “political tactic.” The party’s interim chief Kim Byung-joon refused to accept the invitation. The National Assembly speaker’s office said the speaker would also not be part of the delegation.
Only the minor liberal party for Democracy and Peace and the most-progressive Justice Party accepted the invitation, alongside the DPK. [Korea Times]
This ruling to me goes against good order and discipline in the ROK armed forces. It makes me wonder if a cadet in a US military academy could do the same thing?:
Midshipmen at the Republic of Korea Naval Academy stand in formation, with ROK Navy ships and submarines in the background and U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Bill McQuilkin in attendance. JOSHUA BRUNS/U.S. NAVY, FLICKR
The Supreme Court struck down a decision by a military academy to expel one of its cadets for unauthorized drinking, saying the academy’s code of conduct is too restrictive.
The ruling is expected to lead to sweeping changes in the so-called three bans that the military academies in South Korea have in their codes of conduct for cadets: prohibiting drinking, smoking and marriage.
The cadet, identified by his surname Kim, filed the suit after the Korea Army Academy expelled him in November 2015 for drinking a bottle of soju with friends in November 2014 and several shots of soju during a family dinner in April 2015.
The academy’s code of conduct bans drinking except when it is preapproved and unavoidable. [Yonhap]
A sign is installed at Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul on Sept. 9, 2018, asking visitors to contact staff if they are suspected to have been infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Health authorities said the previous day a 61-year-old man was confirmed to be infected with the lethal virus after returning from a business trip to Kuwait via Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. It marked the first case of the disease here since 2015. (Yonhap)
Col. Kerry Proulx oversaw the 51st Mission Support Group since July 2016. (Air Force)
A colonel at Osan Air Base in South Korea was relieved of command earlier this year after investigators found she strongly and repeatedly leaned on base officials to build a dog park at her quarters.
Col. Kerry Proulx, former commander of the 51st Mission Support Group, also improperly allowed subordinates and one subordinate’s wife to pay for her meals, and did not always repay them, according to a commander-directed investigation report obtained by Air Force Times through the Freedom of Information Act.
Proulx was relieved April 13 by Col. William Betts, commander of the 51st Fighter Wing. At the time, the base said she was removed due to a “loss of confidence in her ability to effectively lead,” but did not elaborate further. Proulx is now chief of the personnel division at Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment submitted to AETC.
The report, dated Feb. 5, detailed a sustained and improper effort by Proulx to get a dog park built directly adjacent to her senior officer quarters, which began immediately after she took command in July 2016. It concluded she “wrongfully direct[ed] the use of government property to construct a dog park for her own personal use.” [Air Force Times]
You can read much more at the link, but this is just another example of how a senior officer some how became so full of their own self importance to risk their career over something as insignificant as a dog park. Even more incredible was that the former 7th Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Bergeson and other senior officers had to walk through this dog park each day and no one apparently called Col. Proulx to ask her why a dog park was being built over a major public access way:
Its construction also removed a public access way, requiring building residents and the commander and vice commander of the 7th Air Force at Osan — Lt. Gen. Thomas Bergeson and Brig. Gen. Lansing Pilch — to open a gate and walk through the dog park to get to the building’s stairs.
The investigator called Proulx’s explanation for why the dog park needed to be located there “illogical.”
“If the dog park was truly for all residents in the area, it would at least have the gate placed separate from the public stair top, it could have been made smaller and not block the public walkway, or it could have been built between” two buildings.
The next time I am on Osan AB I am going to have to walk over and visit this infamous dog park if it hasn’t already been relocated.
This is all part of the effort to get the Trump administration to believe that Kim Jong-un is serious about denuclearization by not displaying his ballistic missiles especially ones capable of reaching the US:
This photo provided by the Associated Press shows a military parade underway at Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang on Sept. 9, 2018, staged to celebrate the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s founding. (Yonhap)
North Korea did not showcase intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States during a military parade staged Sunday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding, media reports showed.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un presided over the event at Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang but did not give an address, according to the reports.
The North appeared to tone down the parade, which was previously used to show its latest military might, amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States.
“The largest missiles shown in the parade were short-range battlefield devices,” the AFP reported from Pyongyang. [Yonhap]
