Category: crime & punishment

It is good to see at least some common sense prevailed in this instance of self defense in South Korea:

A South Korean woman has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing after her alleged rapist accused her of “excessive self-defence” for biting off part of his tongue. 

Police in the southern port city of Busan said they did not find any legal grounds to charge the woman in her 20s who bit off approximately three centimetres of the man’s tongue, reported the Korea Times.

The man, in his 30s, had allegedly found the woman in a drunken state on the street and offered to take her to her hotel, but he is accused of driving instead to a deserted spot and then sexually assaulting her. 

He is said to have reported his injury to the police station but officers gathered to evidence from surveillance cameras and the dashboard camera of his car and recommended he be indicted for illegal confinement and sexual assault. 

“Although her actions exceeded normal limits of self defence, based on discussions with external experts and lawyers, we came to the conclusion that it can be justified according to Article 21 of the Criminal Law Act,” the Times quoted an officer as saying. 

The Telegraph

You can read more at the link, but this is something soldiers have to consistently reminded of, you have little expectation to self defense in South Korea. For example a soldier was assaulted and had a metal pole smashed across his face by a group of Koreans and he had to pay $9,000 in restitution to the people that attacked him because he defended himself.

Other examples of the negative consequences of defending yourself can be seen with the 2004 Shinchon Stabbing Incident or the 1995 Seoul Subway Brawl.  In these cases the GIs were punished for defending themselves while the Koreans that started the fights got away with no legal consequences. This is why I have always said it is best to swallow your pride and walk away from confrontations with Koreans.

The Stars & Stripes article doesn’t mention it, but this Marine lieutenant colonel had his O6 promotion pulled from him. That is a massive loss of pay and eventual retirement money each month lost because of his stupidity:

A Marine lieutenant colonel found guilty of stealing hundreds of dollars in merchandise from a base exchange in South Korea has escaped punishment, according to a published report.

Lt. Col. Samuel K. Lee, 47, was convicted Sept. 11 at Camp Foster, Okinawa, of two counts of violating Article 121 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or larceny of non-military property valued at $1,000 or less, the military news website Task & Purpose reported Thursday, citing court records.

Lee, a logistics officer for Marine Forces Korea, stole a 4K ultra high definition wire-free security camera system, Apple Airpods with a wireless charging system, Bose noise-canceling headphones and Estee Lauder ReNutriv Ultimate Diamond energy cream between Nov. 1, 2019, and March 8, 2020, according to the report, which cited Marine officials with knowledge of the charges.

A conviction for theft at or under $1,000 could bring a bad conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and confinement for one year, according to the manual on courts martial.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link as well as over at Task and Purpose that originally published this story.

It is incredible that this murderer and child rapist will be released back into Korean society:

Notorious child rapist Cho Doo-soon’s upcoming release, scheduled for Dec. 13, is making the public nervous. Calls are mounting to keep him in prison forever, but will it be possible?

Below are some questions and answers about Cho and why it is so difficult to keep him behind bars within the current legal boundaries: 

What has he done?
In 2008, Cho, then 57, violently raped an 8-year-old girl in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. After kidnapping the victim on her way to school, Cho took her to a church restroom. He choked, beat and brutally raped her. The victim was left with severe injuries which resulted in permanent internal damage. Cho was sentenced to 12 years in prison. 

He has 17 other criminal convictions dating from 1970, including sexual offenses and murder. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but residents an the government of Ansan is fighting to stop Cho’s imminent release. Cho is reportedly planning to live somewhere in Ansan. If anyone is wondering why he received such a lenient 12 year sentence, he used the “I was drunk” defense so many Korean criminals use to reduce their sentences.

Did you know Koreans can be charged with breaking a domestic law even if it was committed overseas?:

Police said Tuesday they are investigating two members of a popular K-pop boy band for their alleged involvement in illegal overseas gambling.

Two members of SUPERNOVA have been booked for allegedly playing baccarat, a type of gambling, one or two times in the Philippines from 2016 to 2018 with stakes up to 50 million won (US$42,297), according to the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency.

They are also suspected of having participated in illegal online gambling in South Korea.

The boy band members, however, have claimed they did not go to the Philippines for the purpose of gambling and just happened to gamble by chance, according to the police.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The second son of Yoo Byung-eun, the owner of the company that ran the Chewol ferry that sunk 2014, has been captured by U.S. Marshals for extradition to South Korea. The law has finally caught up to him as well:

One of South Korea’s most notorious fugitives was arrested in the United States this week on​ embezzlement charges ​at home stemming from the 2014 sinking of a ferry that killed more than 300 people, many of them high school students.

Yoo Hyuk-kee, 48, was arrested Wednesday without incident at his home in Westchester County, New York, in response to an extradition request that South Korea submitted to the U.S., a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Yoo’s arrest ends ​a prolonged mystery over the whereabouts of the man South Korean investigators consider to be a central figure in the scandal surrounding the ferry’s sinking, which traumatized the nation. Prosecutors have said that rampant embezzlement by the Yoo family helped create unsafe conditions and practices on the Sewol ferry.

Yoo, also​ known by his English name, Keith Yoo, is a son of Yoo Byung-eun, whose family controlled the Chonghaejin Marine Company, the operator of the Sewol. The overloaded ferry capsized off the southwestern tip of South Korea in April 2014​ in the country’s worst disaster in decades.

New York Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but Yoo’s father committed suicide shortly after the sinking and his oldest brother has already completed two years in jail for fraud. If all of Yoo’s shady dealings are true, hopefully he will be spending a long time in jail as well.

It looks like the leader of the Shincheonji Church will be the fall guy for his church spreading coronavirus in Daegu:

The leader of a minor religious sect at the center of the early coronavirus outbreak in South Korea was arrested early Saturday for allegedly obstructing the government’s efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic.

A local court in Suwon, south of Seoul, issued an arrest warrant for Lee Man-hee, the founder of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. 

Lee, 89, is suspected of submitting false documents to health authorities on the number of participants at the sect’s gatherings and where the gatherings took place in February, when the fringe religious sect became a hot spot of the virus spread in the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

He is also accused of embezzling 5.6 billion won (US$4.68 million) from church funds and holding unauthorized religious events from 2015-19.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Moon administration is willing to just let this one go down the memory hole. Will anyone remember this a few weeks from now? Probably not:

New Zealand said Thursday it has expressed disappointment that South Korea’s government did not cooperate with a police investigation into allegations that one of its diplomats sexually assaulted a local embassy employee when he was stationed in Wellington.

The male employee has accused the Korean diplomat of groping parts of his body over three different occasions in 2017. The case has drawn fresh attention after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern raised the issue in a phone call with President Moon Jae-in earlier this week.

“The New Zealand government has expressed its disappointment that the Korean government did not cooperate with earlier requests from New Zealand Police in respect of this case,” a spokesperson at New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in emailed comments to Yonhap News Agency. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip, the government leaker, Reality Winner is trying to get herself out of prison by using COVID as an excuse:

Reality Leigh Winner, a convicted leaker who recently contracted the novel coronavirus in federal prison, received further pushback from the U.S. government Friday in her bid to be released early.

The Department of Justice said in a court filing that Winner recently tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but appears to be asymptomatic and should stay imprisoned.

In a supplemental brief entered in federal appeals court, the Justice Department said it stands by the claims it previously made against granting Winner’s request for compassionate release.

Washington Times

You can read more at the link, but she was sentenced to 63 months in prison for leaking classified information to the media and I hope she does every single month. She had the potential to lead a great life with her education and a good job and instead decided to blow it all with Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Remember the taxi driver that impeded an ambulance due to a minor accident where the patient ultimately later died at the hospital? Well he is now facing some serious charges:

A Seoul taxi driver who caused public outrage by blocking an ambulance transferring an emergency patient was formally arrested Friday.

The Seoul Eastern District Court granted an arrest warrant for the 31-year-old driver, citing the possibility that he may flee or destroy evidence. The court said his charges have been sufficiently explained. (……….)

The taxi driver, who was three weeks into the job, quit work two weeks after the accident. 

He was arrested on charges of assault and obstruction of business. Police are looking into whether it is possible for him to be charged with culpable homicide.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It seems the ruling Democratic Party in Korea is just hoping that the sexual misconduct allegations against Mayor Park Won-soon will just go away with his death:

On the funeral day of late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Monday, the main opposition party launched what is likely to become an all-out campaign to press for a probe into allegations that the deceased sexually harassed his former secretary.

The pressure by the United Future Party (UFP) highlights deepening political division over the death of the late Seoul mayor.

Park was found dead at a mountain in Seoul after apparently taking his own life on Thursday. He was facing a criminal complaint on sexual harassment, filed by his former secretary.

With Park’s death, the police were to close the case against him in his absence, but opposition lawmakers are increasing calls to get to the bottom of the allegations raised against the three-term mayor who was a lawyer defending human rights and women’s rights. (……)

“I believe the DP, having been more proactive than anyone in the past ‘#MeToo’ wave, would doubtlessly join the efforts to find the truth,” he said, calling for a probe into the case.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this is the end of the #metoo movement in South Korea? The movement pretty much ended in the U.S. once the #metoo people went after Joe Biden. Could the same thing happen in South Korea?