Category: crime & punishment

This could be bad news for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung:

A fugitive underwear tycoon nabbed in Thailand last week in connection with the prosecution’s ongoing investigation into opposition leader Lee Jae-myung’s corruption allegations returned home Tuesday.

Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group, arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, around 8:20 a.m. via an Asiana Airlines flight from Bangkok.

He was apprehended by Thai police at a golf club near Bangkok a week ago, roughly eight months after he fled the country amid several high-profile corruption investigations.

Kim has been long sought after by prosecutors as a key suspect in a number of high-profile corruption investigations, including alleged payment of Lee’s attorney expenses by proxy, suspected embezzlement of company funds and alleged transfer of cash to North Korea.

The 55-year-old Kim, handcuffed and flanked by prosecution investigators, was asked if he had any relationship with Lee, the chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), by reporters at the airport but flatly said he did not know him at all.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This must have been terrifying to find in her boyfriend’s closet:

A man in his 30s was arrested Sunday for murdering and hiding the body of a taxi driver in his 60s in a closet at his home in Paju, Gyeonggi.  
   
“There is a dead body in my boyfriend’s closet at an apartment in Paju,” a caller reported to the 112 emergency hotline around 11:22 a.m. on Sunday.  
   
Earlier that day, the taxi driver’s son called the police at around 3:30 a.m. saying that his father “has been missing for six days” and that he “talked to him on KakaoTalk but it feels like talking to a different person.” 

The police went to the apartment in Paju after the call was made and confirmed that the dead body was the taxi driver.  
   
According to the Ilsan Dongbu Police Precinct, the man was involved in a car crash with the taxi driver while drunk driving at around 11 p.m. on Dec. 20. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is why I don’t have cameras inside of my house, they are just too easy to hack:

A hacker in his 30s was arrested on charges of infiltrating built-in home cameras at over 600 different apartment complexes and distributing recorded footage, police said Tuesday.

In South Korea, it is common for internet-connected home security devices with cameras to be installed in apartment complexes. A wall-pad device, which is attached to the wall, can activate other devices inside the house.

The hacker, only identified by his surname Lee, is under suspicion of hacking wall-pad devices of more than 400,000 households in 638 different apartment complexes between August and November of last year, according to the National Police Agency (NPA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like President Yoon is about to follow through on one of his campaign promises:

Former President Lee Myung-bak is expected to receive a special pardon later this year as part of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s second round of special pardons.

According to the presidential office, Yoon is expected to grant special pardons at the end of the year. The presidential pardons are likely to be granted on December 28.

The former president is serving a 17-year prison sentence for embezzlement and bribery. Lee, who governed the country from 2008 to 2013, was charged with 16 criminal allegations in 2018 and sentenced in 2020. 

Currently, Lee is out of prison, having been granted a temporary suspension of his sentence due to health issues. He initially filed the request for a three-month temporary suspension in June and then requested an extension for another three months in September. His suspension is set to expire on Dec. 28 at midnight. 

The Ministry of Justice will review the beneficiaries of the pardon on Dec. 20 and the government is expected to announce the official list on Dec. 27 after a Cabinet meeting.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This drunken idiot gets to experience the full extent of the Korean court system:

A member of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) has been arrested after beating up a taxi driver so badly that the victim could not work for a number of days, according to the police in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday.

The aggressor’s attack was recorded by a black-box video camera installed inside the taxi at about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 27. He threw punches at the victim, who is 58 years old, using both arms as the driver took the beating whilst trying to guard his head with his hands.

The American then returned to Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, right across the road from where the incident happened. The aggressor left his wallet on the back seat of the taxi, where his identification card was found. Officers from Seongnam Sujeong Police Station arrived at the scene after the soldier fled the scene. The authorities said that they will call in the aggressor to the police station for questioning.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the assault happened after the Soldiers credit card was declined for payment. The driver for his part is smartly playing up his injuries as much as possible trying to get as much money from the U.S. military as he can.

This horrible woman will hopefully face justice in New Zealand for allegedly killing her two kids:

A 42-year-old woman, who is suspected of killing her two children, has been extradited to New Zealand. 

According to the Ministry of Justice, Tuesday, the woman, surnamed Lee, is a New Zealand citizen of Korean descent and was handed over along with evidence to the New Zealand authorities the previous day at Incheon International Airport.

The woman came into the spotlight in August after a family in Auckland found the bodies of a 10-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy in two suitcases they purchased with other “abandoned goods” at an online auction. Police believe that the bodies had been kept there for several years.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It seems like common sense to keep these sex offenders away from schools:

Last month, Park Byung-hwa, 39, a serial rapist who was released after 15 years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting 10 women between December 2002 and October 2007, settled in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. He moved into a residential district where two elementary schools and one high school are located within a three kilometers radius of his home. 

Residents have held multiple rallies calling for Park’s eviction. In response, the local government has additionally installed 30 surveillance cameras in the area and is distributing window locking devices and safety alarm gadgets to women living nearby, but such measures have done little to assuage their concerns about possible re-offending by the ex-convict.

Even though registered sex offenders are closely monitored by probation officers, an absence of restrictions blocking heinous criminals from residing near schools and child-related facilities is highly unnerving for residents in the neighborhood.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting how this complaint comes out after the actor becomes world famous from his role in Squid Game:

“Squid Game” actor O Yeong-su has been indicted on charges of sexual misconduct, judicial officials said Friday.

The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office indicted the 78-year-old O without detention Thursday over an allegation that he inappropriately touched the body of a woman in mid-2017, the officials said.

The case dates back to December last year, when the alleged victim filed a complaint against O with police.

Police then closed the case without filing any charge against the actor in April but the prosecution later reopened the investigation at the request of the victim.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but from what I have read O Yeong-su claims that five years ago he held the woman’s hand to guide her around a lake.

With this new policy kids at the age of 13 can spend time in jail instead of youth correction centers:

 The age of criminal responsibility will be lowered by one year from the current 14, the Ministry of Justice said Wednesday, announcing measures to cope with an increasing number of serious crimes committed by juveniles.

The ministry said it will revise the criminal and juvenile laws to lower the criminal age limit to be able to charge youths criminally from the age of 13.

Currently, minors under the age of 14 cannot be convicted of a crime in South Korea. If such children commit offenses, they are referred to community service programs or youth correction institutions.

Under the soon-to-be revised laws, 13-year-old middle school first or second grade students, for instance, will be subject to criminal punishment if they commit a crime.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This will be pretty significant if the prosecutors succeed in arresting the former ROK Defense Minister over the death of the fishery official by the North Koreans two years ago:

 Prosecutors sought arrest warrants Tuesday for former Defense Minister Suh Wook and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee in an investigation into the previous administration’s handling of the 2020 death of a fisheries official at the hands of North Korea.

The two are facing various charges, including dereliction of duty, abuse of power and creating false official documents in connection with the Moon Jae-in administration’s conclusion without sufficient evidence that the fisheries official was killed while attempting to defect to the North.

Critics have accused the Moon administration of drawing the conclusion to curry favor with Pyongyang.

Prosecutors suspect Suh deliberately erased intelligence reports that suggest the official, Lee Dae-jun, did not intend to defect, and ordered officials to write false facts for a report for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Kim — who was responsible for an investigation into the death at the time — is under suspicion of using fabricated facts to conclude that Lee had intended to defect.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.