Category: crime & punishment

This is a lot of meth that was interdicted in Busan:

South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they have busted the nation’s largest-ever drug trafficking attempt with an arrest of a man in his 30s in the southern port city of Busan.

The Busan District Prosecutors Office said it has arrested and indicted a 34-year-old man on charges of smuggling over 400 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico.

The prosecution said the volume of methamphetamine seized from the suspect totaled 404.23 kg, the largest amount in the nation’s history of drug smuggling.

The seized drugs, which can be administered to 13.5 million people at the same time, is worth 1.3 trillion won ($1.12 billion) in terms of retail price.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I would be surprised if South Korea brings back the death penalty, but I have no sympathy for these two criminals if they do:

A series of atrocious crimes of late are once again sparking debate over capital punishment. 

South Korea is classified as “abolitionist in practice,” which means that the government retains the death penalty but has not actually executed a criminal in the past 10 years or longer. The last execution here took place Dec. 31, 1997, when 23 convicted of murder were hanged. 

However, the issue has been brought to the fore again following the homicide of a 20-month-old toddler by her stepfather in June and the murder of two women last month by a sex offender who removed his electronic monitoring anklet while on parole. 

The 29-year-old stepfather, identified as Yang, allegedly covered the baby girl with blankets because she would not stop crying and punched and stomped her to death. Furthermore, the parents hid the baby’s body in an ice box in their bathroom.

The crime has drawn public rage especially because Yang allegedly raped and sexually assaulted the toddler, according to autopsy results and the mother’s testimony. 

In the other case, a man surnamed Kang, who had 14 previous convictions, was released from prison in May after serving 15 years for sexual assault, but last Friday and Sunday he killed two women, one of whom was murdered after he destroyed his monitoring anklet.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible story:

Police on Monday arrested two teenage brothers for allegedly stabbing their own grandmother to death.  
   
According to Daegu Seobu Police, an 18-year-old boy stabbed his 77-year-old grandmother with a kitchen knife around 12:50 a.m. on Monday at their house in Daegu.  
   
Stab wounds were found all over her body, including on her face, shoulder, arm and hip.  
   
When the police asked for his motive, the boy said that he was angered by his grandmother’s nagging. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the murderers 16 year old brother later admitted to helping kill his grandmother as well.

Its surprising this guy just turned himself in after committing these crimes:

A man, who had cut off his monitoring ankle bracelet and took off, turned himself in to police and said he killed two women, police said.

Songpa Police Station arrested the 56-year-old man, surnamed Kang, on Sunday for ripping off the electronic device and allegedly murdering two — one before he ran off and the other while he was on the run.

The man turned himself over to police at around 8 a.m. Sunday, reportedly saying he feared being arrested soon for his crimes. Police had been chasing him since Friday, when he ran away.

The police found the victims’ bodies at the man’s house and in his car. The two women, in their 40s and 50s, respectively, are said to have known the man.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a creative defense when this sailor probably just dozed off at the wheel after climbing up Mt. Fuji:

A U.S. naval officer, facing 4 ½ years in a Japanese prison, described in court Tuesday how he lost consciousness driving home from Mount Fuji and caused an accident that ultimately claimed the lives of two people.

Lt. Ridge Hanneman Alkonis, 33, crashed his car into pedestrians and parked vehicles at a soba restaurant parking lot in Fujinomiya on May 29, according to an indictment. The city is about two hours from Yokosuka Naval Base, where Alkonis is assigned to the destroyer USS Benfold as a weapons officer.

Alkonis, who is charged with negligent driving resulting in death, said he lost consciousness due to acute mountain sickness, a common set of symptoms that occur with a trip to high altitude.

Killed in the crash was a woman, 85, who died that day, and a man, 54, who died in a hospital on June 11. A second woman, 53, suffered bruises to her knees and elbows.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

What gets me is this guy just got three years probation and no jail time. Korea needs to give these people at least some jail time as a deterrent:

A 51-year-old gym teacher at a U.S. military base in South Korea was sentenced to three years of probation for attempting to smuggle morphine and oxycodone into the country, according to South Korean court filings earlier this month.

The unnamed American working at an unnamed U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek city, Gyeonggi Province, attempted to smuggle 120 oxycodone tablets and 315 morphine-based tablets by mail on Dec. 17, according to records at the Incheon District Court.

Pyeongtaek is home to two U.S. installations, Osan Air Base and Camp Humphreys, the latter of which is the largest U.S. military base overseas. Camp Humphreys is home to six K-12 schools while Osan Air Base has two.

The teacher requested the illicit substances from an unnamed source, who sent the tablets in a box containing chocolates, according to a sentencing document.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The problem with this bill is who defines what fake news is? The last ROK President was impeached in part with help from fake news which the people pushing this bill didn’t mind at the time:

Ruling Democratic Party (DP) members on a parliamentary committee Thursday approved a bill that would impose a five-fold increase in penalties on media outlets that make false or fraudulent news reports, ignoring protests from opposition lawmakers and media associations.  
   
The proposal – an amendment to the existing Press Arbitration Act – was passed at a plenary session of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee by its DP lawmakers and after a boycott by protesting opposition lawmakers. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but it is arguable that the Korean left is trying to control the media prior to next year’s Presidential election.

It looks like another member of the ROK military is about to go down for sexual harassment:

A Navy court on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for a senior chief petty officer suspected of having sexually harassed a female subordinate who was found dead in an apparent suicide earlier this week.

The issuance of the arrest warrant for the officer, whose identity was withheld, came after a pre-trial detention hearing held at the Navy’s general military court in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The suspect was immediately imprisoned at a detention facility of the Navy 2nd Fleet.

The victim, known only as a female chief petty officer, was found dead at her residence in Pyeongtaek on Thursday after reporting days earlier that she had suffered sexual harassment from the suspect in May.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this incident happened shortly before the ROK Air Force sexual harassment suicide case back in early June.

Lee got caught up in a political prosecution of former President Park Geun-hye, so everyone kind of knew he would eventually get released early and now it has happened:

The justice ministry said Monday it will release jailed Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on parole later this week, a decision fiercely protested by civic groups and welcomed by Samsung Group and other business leaders.

The vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co. has been serving time since he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by the Seoul High Court on Jan. 18 in a retrial of a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye. (……)

The ministry considered “the country’s economic situation and the conditions of the global economy amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic” as factors behind the decision, Park said in a briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Just another example of the breakdown of civil society in major U.S. cities: