Category: crime & punishment

It will be interesting to see how this turns out:

Three Iranian nationals — two athletes and one coach — participating in the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, have been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a Korean woman.

According to police, a report was filed around 7 a.m. Saturday, stating that a woman in her 20s had been sexually assaulted at a hotel in Gumi.

Police responded and arrested two athletes in their 30s and one coach at the hotel.

Initial investigations suggest the suspects met the victim at a bar near the athletes’ village in Gumi before taking her to a hotel, where the alleged assault occurred.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

At least they caught her for voting twice, but it does make you wonder how much more of this is going on?:

A Seoul court on Sunday approved a warrant to arrest a woman suspected of voting twice during early voting last week, including once by proxy for her husband, a court official said. 

The Seoul Central District Court issued the writ against the woman, only identified by her last name Park, citing the risks of her destroying evidence and fleeing. 

Park, a contract worker at the Gangnam Ward Office’s health center, is accused of casting ballots twice, once using her husband’s identity, on the first day of early voting on Thursday. She cast her own vote five hours later. 

For the early voting period, she had been appointed to a post responsible for issuing ballot papers to voters.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully this effort to arrest people reporting fake news isn’t just against conservative media outlets:

Police on Tuesday applied for an arrest warrant for an internet media reporter over a controversial report alleging that 99 Chinese spies were apprehended at a National Election Commission (NEC) facility during former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law on Dec. 3.

The reporter, whose identity is withheld, is accused of obstructing the NEC’s official duties by publishing a false article, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

The January 16 article claimed that the 99 Chinese nationals captured during a South Korean-U.S. joint military operation were transported to a U.S. base in Japan’s Okinawa and confessed to all charges of election interference during the interrogation process.

The NEC rejected the claim as “clearly false” and filed a police complaint against the media.

The police said they will continue to strictly investigate similar online fake news articles.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if they were extorting him by offering to get an abortion if he paid off the woman?:

Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean captain Son Heung-min has filed a complaint with the police against a woman who allegedly blackmailed him after claiming to be pregnant, police said Wednesday.

The Gangnam Police Station in southern Seoul said it is investigating a woman in her 20s and a man on charges of attempted extortion after receiving Son’s complaint last Wednesday.

Son is said to have claimed that the two falsely told him the woman was pregnant in an attempt to extort at least several hundred million won from him in June last year.

Police said they are looking into the case thoroughly to determine its full circumstances.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter is in trouble once again:

Moon Da-hye, daughter of former President Moon Jae-in, is under police investigation over fraud charges, officials said Tuesday.

The Seoul Seodaemun Police Station announced they had recently booked the junior Moon as a suspect in an alleged fraud case.

According to police, Moon is accused of not honoring a pledge to donate proceeds from a charity auction to a nonprofit. The auction took place in December 2022 at a gallery she ran at the time.

For the auction, Moon is said to have received works from about 30 artists and told them proceeds would be put to good use.

However, police received a complaint in October 2024 that money raised from the event had not reached the nonprofit.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but she was convicted last year for a DUI charge and running an illegal Air B&B business in Seoul.

We have another hangbag gate to include necklace gate involving the former Korean First Lady:

Prosecutors searched the Seoul residence of former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday as part of an ongoing corruption investigation involving a spiritual adviser.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office sent investigators to seize evidence related to suspected lobbying and illicit financial exchanges between the former presidential couple and a shaman named Jeon Seong-bae, better known by his alias “Geonjin.”

The disgraced former president and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, face multiple criminal charges, including corruption and election interference, but Wednesday’s operation marked the first time investigators searched their residence.

Jeon, 65, is under investigation on suspicion of receiving illegal political funds from candidates in the 2018 local elections. He was arrested in December 2024 on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, which governs how political parties and politicians can raise, manage and spend money for their activities.

The probe later expanded to include Yoon and Kim following revelations linking them to the case. 

Jeon, who was reportedly involved in Yoon’s election campaign during the 2022 presidential race, is suspected of exerting influence over personnel appointments and acting as an intermediary using his personal ties with the former first couple.

Prosecutors allege a former high-ranking Unification Church official, identified only by his surname, Yoon, delivered a diamond necklace worth 60 million won ($42,000) and an expensive handbag to Jeon shortly after Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May 2022. The items were reportedly intended as gifts for the former first lady.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the gifts were actually delivered to Kim. Jeon is said to have testified that he lost the necklace. 

The investigators also suspect that the Unification Church official attempted to lobby the couple through Jeon in a bid to secure official development assistance (ODA) funding through the government for the church’s business projects in Cambodia.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like former President Moon may continue the tradition of former Korean presidents going to jail:

Former President Moon Jae-in was indicted without detention Thursday on charges of bribery, according to the Jeonju District Prosecutor’s Office.

Moon has been accused of allowing his former son-in-law to receive preferential treatment in securing a job with an airline. Almost 220 million won ($154,000) in salary and relocation expenses to Thailand were paid between July 2018 and April 2020, which constituted a de facto bribe to the former president, according to the prosecution.

Prosecutors launched an investigation into former President Moon Jae-in’s alleged involvement in the case after Seoul-based civic group Justice People filed a complaint in December 2021, alleging a possible quid pro quo involving Moon, his former son-in-law, identified by the surname Seo, and Lee Sang-jik — a former two-term lawmaker from the then-ruling Democratic Party and founder of budget airline Eastar Jet.

Prosecutors pinpointed Lee as the source of the alleged bribe and confirmed that Seo’s appointment as executive director of Thai Eastar Jet was made despite his lack of airline industry experience and the company’s financial struggles. A separate civil affairs team under Moon’s presidential office was involved in the process, the prosecution claims.

“Seo frequently left his post for extended periods, flew to South Korea or worked remotely. He did not provide proper labor befitting his position as the executive director. But Seo received a monthly salary of 8 million won, almost twice the salary of the airline’s CEO,” the Jeonju District Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but this was clearly a quid pro quo for his son-in-law to get this job he was not qualified for and apparently put little effort into. With that said imagine if the U.S. had the same corruption laws as Korea? Former president Joe Biden would be getting prosecuted for all the money his son has been making off of his dad’s name and position. Instead you have a whole political party and media establishment covering for him.

It sounds like this guy might of walked out of mental hospital to commit this stabbing attack in a Seoul supermarket which tragically led to one woman being killed:

A woman was killed and another wounded Tuesday after a man went on a stabbing rampage in Seoul, police said.

The suspect in his 30s stabbed the two women while wielding a knife at a supermarket near Mia Station in northern Seoul at around 6:20 p.m., according to the police.

One of the victims in her 60s was transported to a nearby hospital in cardiac arrest but later pronounced dead.

The second victim in her 40s is receiving treatment at a hospital, and she is not in critical condition.

The suspect was detained shortly after the incident and is currently under investigation.

The motive behind the attack was not immediately known, and the suspect and the victims were not acquainted, according to the police officials.

The suspect reportedly opened a package containing the weapon inside the supermarket before launching the attack. He was wearing a hospital gown at that time, they added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I can understand why the police are getting turned around, this would be like the Washington, DC police showing up at the White House and asking the Secret Service to hand over SIPR phones and computers. It is not going happen without a proper security review to release those materials due to classified information on those machines that have nothing to do with the investigation:

A special police investigation team withdraws from its attempt to raid the presidential office in Seoul’s Yongsan district on April 16, 2025, over allegations that former President Yoon Suk Yeol obstructed the execution of a detention warrant early this year.

Police failed to raid the presidential office Wednesday over allegations surrounding former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law bid after a 10-hour standoff with presidential security officials.

The police’s special investigation team presented a warrant to search the presidential office’s secure phone server, and the Presidential Security Service (PSS) office and residence, all in the central Seoul district of Yongsan, earlier in the day, according to officials. 

But security officials blocked their entry, and the presidential office later submitted a statement of disapproval, prompting investigators to leave the scene.

The police said the PSS had instead agreed to voluntarily provide certain materials, including data from the classified phone server.

Police have repeatedly attempted to seize the server records of a secure phone used by Yoon related to his Dec. 3 martial law imposition but have been largely unsuccessful.

By law, military facilities and other areas that handle confidential information cannot be searched or seized without approval from the responsible authority or office.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

With her husband impeached the lawfare against Kim Keon-hee is expected to accelerate:

Throughout Yoon’s nearly three-year presidency, a series of political scandals involving his wife — including allegations of election interference and corruption — faced intense public scrutiny. However, the investigation moved slowly while she was first lady.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has been investigating Kim’s alleged involvement in election interference tied to self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun, who was indicted in December for violating the Public Official Election Act.

Prosecutors questioned Myung on Thursday and Friday, a move some observers interpreted as a sign that a formal summons for Kim could be imminent.

Kim is accused of interfering in candidate nominations during the 2022 parliamentary by-elections. 

Yoon and Kim are suspected of receiving opinion polling services from a polling agency effectively run by Myung during the 2022 presidential campaign. In return, they allegedly helped Kim Young-sun, a former lawmaker from the conservative People Power Party, secure the party’s nomination for a parliamentary by-election in Changwon. The former lawmaker is said to have paid Myung for his services.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.