Author: GIKorea

This missing child and murder case is totally bizarre and it is only a matter of time before this is turned into a movie:

A woman was given a suspended prison term in a retrial on Thursday in connection with the mysterious disappearance and deaths of two 3-year-old girls.

Reversing an earlier prison term of eight years, the appellate division of the Daegu District Court sentenced the 50-year-old woman, surnamed Seok, to two years in prison, suspended for three years.

The court acquitted Seok of charges that she had switched her 3-year-old daughter with her granddaughter of the same age years ago in the southeastern city of Gumi. 

The case first surfaced in 2021 when the mummified remains of a 3-year-old girl was found at the former home of Seok’s daughter, surnamed Kim. The girl is suspected to have died from starvation up to six months earlier.

However, it was only later found through DNA tests that Kim is not the mother of the girl, but her older sister. The child’s supposed grandmother was in fact the biological mother.

Based on the DNA results, prosecutors added child abduction and switching charges against Seok by alleging that the two women gave birth around the same time and that their babies were switched at birth. 

Prosecutors alleged that Seok had unloaded her newborn onto her eldest daughter to raise with her then husband. Kim had raised her younger sister by thinking that she was her daughter.

Seok, however, said she had not given birth to another child, insisting the DNA results are false. The whereabouts of the missing child remain unclear.

In previous rulings, the district and appeals courts had acknowledged the biological relationship between Seok and the dead girl, convicting her of switching the babies. 

The Supreme Court, however, struck down the verdict, saying the DNA test results cannot stand as evidence for Seok’s alleged switching of the babies. 

On Thursday, the appellate court sided with the top court, acquitting Seok of switching babies and only convicting her of attempting to dispose of the body.

Yonhap

What I don’t get is why Seok would switch the babies around the time of birth to just likely kill her granddaughter after the switch? If she was going to kill a baby why didn’t she just get an abortion? Also how did the daughter Kim not notice she had a different baby? The daughter was sentenced to 20 years in jail for killing the baby when she reached age 3 that uncovered this whole sorted affair.

I think this qualifies as a first world problem:

While the increasing imports of sex dolls serve to comfort lonely men in Korea, they’re also frightening some men, particularly garbage collectors. 

According to the Kookmin Ilbo, a Korean-language daily newspaper, a garbage collector recalled his frightening encounter with a sex doll at work.

“I saw a bit of hair in the trash pile and pulled at it assuming it to be a wig,” the newspaper quoted him as saying in an online post. “What I got was a beheaded woman. Can you imagine how much that frightened me at first (assuming it was a real dead body)?”

He went on to say that instead of throwing away the doll as a whole, “the owner dismembered the doll and wrapped the parts separately. The head wasn’t wrapped tight enough. When I saw the decapitated head, my heart stopped. My hands are still shivering. Those wishing to buy sex dolls, please think also about how to properly dispose of them.”

It’s not the first such incident, according to the newspaper. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is pretty atrocious police work and makes you wonder if even today how well these criminals with ankle monitors are being tracked:

A Seoul court on Wednesday ordered the state to pay more than 200 million won (US$162,500) in compensation to family members of a woman killed after an attempted rape by a man wearing an ankle monitor for sexual crimes.

In 2012, the woman in her 30s was murdered by Seo Jin-hwan, who broke into her house in Seoul’s Gwangjin district in an attempt to rape her. It was only later found out by police that Seo had committed a similar crime just 13 days earlier and that he was wearing an electronic ankle monitor at the time.

The family then filed a compensation suit against the state, claiming Seo’s crime could have been prevented if police had properly managed DNA evidence found from the previous crime scene and if his ankle bracelet had been properly monitored.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing that it has been over eight years since the Sewol ferry disaster and legal actions are still happening:

Lee Byung-kee, former chief of staff of the Park Geun-hye administration, talks to the press after his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Nine officials that worked under President Park Geun-hye were acquitted on charges of obstructing the investigation into the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry that killed more than 300 people in 2014, many of them students on a school trip.   

The officials, which included Lee Byung-kee, chief of staff of President Park, were accused of obstructing a special committee that was formed in 2015 to investigate the Sewol ferry tragedy, including the 7 hours President Park was reportedly missing.   

All nine former officials were indicted without detention in May 2020 on charges of obstructing the appointment of a key official on the committee, the dispatch of 17 public officials and ending the investigation period of the committee prematurely.   

The Seoul Central District Court said while it acknowledge some of the acts were committed, it noted that the investigation did not go into detail to prove who or how those acts violated the law.   
   
The court acquitted them on the charges for lack of evidence in proving any malfeasance.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but basically what these officials were being accused of was trying to cover up former President Park’s actions the day of the Sewol tragedy, the so called missing seven hours. Media speculation said she was having botox treatments or even an affair during the missing seven hours.  None of this was true when an investigation by the Moon administration showed she was meeting with the infamous Choi Soon-shil and getting her hair done and the report of the accident was left on a note outside her door.

Even if she was notified immediately it would not have made a difference on what happened that day. If a rescue was going to happen it was going to have to be by first responders from the ROK Coast Guard. The Coast Guard office in Mokpo immediately sent a vessel to the accident site after receiving emergency phone calls from passengers.  The vessel arrived at the scene before the sinking, but did not order the passengers to evacuate. This contributed to the various reasons why so many people died when the Sewol sunk.

Regardless the official timeline is not flattering towards President Park and apparently her staff tried to shield her from scrutiny and thus the legal actions that were taken against them by the follow on Moon administration.

Being in an increasingly bad neighborhood has convinced the majority of the Japanese public they need to build up their defenses. This is a big change considering how for decades the Japanese public has maintained a pacifist stance:

People in Japan are warming to the idea of a stronger defense policy amid challenges from China, Russia and North Korea, according to a recent poll.

The Nikkei Research survey of 1,663 Japanese adults between October and November showed 49% backed an expanded role in the U.S.-Japan alliance while 46% opposed it.

That’s up from 41% who wanted a bigger role for Japan in the alliance and 53% who were against it in 2020. A 2021 survey showed 46% in favor and 49% against, the Nikkei newspaper reported Jan. 25.

When people were asked if they were worried Japan might be attacked, 83% said they were concerned while 14% said they weren’t. Of those concerned, 54% said Japan should boost its role in the U.S.-Japan alliance, according to the poll.

North Korean and Chinese missile launches near Japan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine kept security issues in the news last year.

In the latest poll, 89% of respondents saw China as a threat, 87% felt threatened by North Korea, and 90% saw Russia as a threat.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It has always been pay to play in North Korea, so Lee had to have offered something to visit and it appears the offer was $3 million according to this guy:

An arrested underwear tycoon allegedly said he delivered US$8 million to North Korea in 2019 to help promote Gyeonggi Province’s smart farm project and then Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s visit to the North, informed officials said Tuesday.

Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group, who was nabbed in Thailand in early January after months on the run, reportedly made the controversial remarks during questioning by prosecutors in Suwon, 34 kilometers south of Seoul.

The Suwon District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kim on Jan. 20 on multiple charges, including embezzlement, bribery and the illegal transfer of cash to North Korea.

Previously, Kim told prosecutors that he only handed a total of over $5 million to North Korea on two occasions in 2019 to pursue economic cooperation rights involving the North.

As the prosecution presented other related documents, however, the underwear tycoon reportedly disclosed an additional remittance of $3 million to Pyongyang and the reasons for the cash payment, the officials said.

Kim allegedly said that $5 million was delivered in connection with Gyeonggi Province’s smart farm project in North Korea and the additional $3 million was intended to facilitate Lee’s visit to the North.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if Lee Jae-myung had won the presidency does anyone think any of this would have come out?