Category: crime & punishment

The Tsubaki Tower area of Tumon Beach is actually a pretty nice tourism area on the island with some expensive resorts. These criminals must have figured anyone walking down the sidewalk there must of had money on them. Hopefully the Guam authorities catch whoever did this:

Police tape is seen wrapped around a pole in front of Tsubaki Towers in Tamuning, Guam, Jan. 5, after a fatal shooting on the previous day. AP-Yonhap

The authorities in the U.S. territory of Guam vowed Friday to bring to justice those who fatally shot a Korean visitor in a tourist district.

The shooting occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday when the traveler and his wife were walking toward Tsubaki Towers, a hotel on Guam’s popular Tumon Bay, from nearby Gun Beach, KUAM-TV reported, citing police.

An older model, dark-colored SUV approached them from behind, Guam Police Chief Stephen Ignacio said at a news conference.

A passenger holding a gun got of the vehicle and demanded they hand over their belongings, Ignacio said, adding, “A struggle ensued.”

The victim was taken to Guam Regional Medical City, where he died from his injuries the next morning. He had been visiting Guam while celebrating his retirement.

The Guam Visitors Bureau has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The police have caught the people who actually committed the crime, but not the person who paid them to do it yet:

Police are hunting down the mastermind who commissioned a teen to spray paint 44-meter-long graffiti on the walls of a historic palace in central Seoul earlier this month, officials said Tuesday.

A 17-year-old, only identified by his surname Im, was arrested last week after spray painting the phrase “free movie” in Korean on both sides of the western gate to Gyeongbok Palace and palace walls near the National Palace Museum of Korea on Dec. 16. 

Investigators have since found that Im was paid 100,000 won to commit the crime.

In an effort to track down the mastermind, police have conducted digital forensics on Im’s mobile phone, looked into the bank account used for the crime, and are scrutinizing the dialogue the two had on the messenger Telegram, according to national police chief Yoon Hee-keun.

But officials said they are having difficulty tracking down the mastermind due to strong security features of the messaging app and its server being based overseas.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is good to see that the police caught the idiots responsible for putting graffiti on the Gyeongbok Palace walls. Hopefully they receive strict punishment to serve as a deterrent to anyone else thinking of doing this as well:

Police on Tuesday arrested two teenagers for drawing 44-meter-long graffiti on the walls of a historic palace in central Seoul last weekend, officials said. 

Police caught a 17-year-old male at his home in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul, on Tuesday evening before arresting his 16-year-old female accomplice nearby minutes later, according to the Seoul Jongno Police Station.

On Saturday, the suspects repeatedly sprayed the phrase “free movie” in Korean with red and blue paint on both sides of the western gate to Gyeongbok Palace and palace walls near the National Palace Museum of Korea.

Also sprayed were the names of illegal video-sharing and streaming platforms, with similar graffiti also found on the walls of the nearby Seoul Metropolitan Agency.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This guy is lucky to be alive and will likely be spending some time in jail for surviving this fall:

An inflatable jump bag is set up in front of an apartment building in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang, on Monday after a man started engaging in a standoff while holding his ex-girlfriend hostage at knifepoint. [NEWS1]

A man in his 20s, who had been holding his ex-girlfriend hostage at knifepoint on Monday, jumped off an apartment building from a staircase between the sixth and seventh floors of the building. 
  
According to South Gyeongsang police, the incident took place in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang, at around 2 p.m. 
  
The man engaged in a four-hour standoff with the police before jumping from the building.

He struck an exterior structure of the apartment on the third floor before landing on an air mattress laid on the first floor. 
  
He was taken to a hospital by first responders. 
  
The police said that the man was undergoing court proceedings for stalking his ex-girlfriend.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This arrest makes me wonder how many countries and how long these thieves have been pickpocketing people?:

Police arrest three Russian nationals suspected of pickpocketing at a subway station in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, on Nov.13. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

Prosecutors on Thursday indicted three Russian nationals suspected of pickpocketing subway riders for two weeks in Seoul, their office said Monday. 
  
The three Russian nationals, comprising two men aged 45 and a woman aged 38, entered Korea on a tourist visa on Nov. 1. 
  
The police said the three individuals focused on finding victims among subway riders during rush hour.

They mainly targeted women with handbags, approaching them in a coordinated manner, with one person standing in front of the victim to impede movement while another created distraction among the surrounding crowd so that the third person could pick up the victim’s purse. 
  
The three-member group was apprehended by the police on Nov. 13 who were on a stakeout. 
  
Authorities found that the three had collectively spent 45 hours riding the subway over nine days since their arrival in Seoul. 
  
The police estimated that the three stole a total of 7.13 million won ($5,400), including 5.6 million won in cash, in addition to three mobile phones.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Guys like this need a swift death penalty for such a brutal crime:

Choi Yun-jong, the suspect behind the rape and murder of a woman in Seoul’s Sillim neighborhood, speaks to reporters at the Seoul Gwanak Police Station, in this file photo taken Aug. 25, 2023. (Yonhap)

Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a 30-year-old suspect behind the attempted rape and killing of a woman on a hiking trail in southern Seoul.

Choi Yun-jong was indicted on charges of fatally beating, throttling and attempting to rape the victim he randomly picked on a hillside hiking trail in the Sillim neighborhood on Aug. 17.

In the final hearing at Seoul Central District Court, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Choi, arguing that he poses a high risk to society if released without any sign of repentance.

Prosecutors also stressed that he caused irrevocable damage to the family members of the victim and said there is a need to show that anyone who causes such crime would face heavy punishment.

The victim, an elementary school teacher in her 30s, had been left unaided for around 20 minutes before being found by the police and moved to a hospital. She died two days later due to brain damage caused by the strangulation.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This was a horrible crime that happened to the woman just trying to do her job at a convenience store:

This image captured from X, also formerly known as Twitter, shows an ongoing campaign in which women with short hair share their photos, which began after a female part-timer in her 20s, who was working at a convenience store, was assaulted by a man in his 20s simply because of her short hair. Captured from X

Should women with short hair be labeled as feminists? And do feminists harm men?

Such questions, which sound a bit peculiar, have been raised in Korea, once again, following a recent incident, in which a female part-timer in her 20s, who was working at a convenience store, was assaulted by a man in his 20s simply because of her short hair. 

The incident immediately led to an online campaign encouraging women with short hair to share their photos under #women_shortcut_campaign.

According to police, the assailant was caught assaulting the part-timer at the convenience store in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, on Saturday. The man also assaulted a male customer in his 50s who was trying to stop the attack.

At the time of the attack, the attacker said to the victim, “You must be a feminist as you have short hair. The feminist should get punished,” according to the police.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes this news of an assault of a Korean woman in Sydney by two Australian teenage women:

Disturbing footage shows the moment a teenager brutally attacked a young Korean woman in Sydney in the early hours of Sunday morning. 

According to Instagram account ‘degeneratehunting’, which uploaded the footage, the Korean woman and her friend were walking back to their hotel when they were approached by two teenagers near Town Hall in the city’s CBD. 

The women, who are from Melbourne and aged 23 and 32, “suddenly passed a group of young teenagers slurring racist remarks and threats towards them”. 

“The teenagers then turned from their direction of travel and began following the two Korean girls, bringing one of them to start recording for self defence,” the post read.

Footage shows the Korean woman in a tussle with one of the teenagers on the street before she is dragged to the floor and struck multiple times. 

The woman manages to get to her feet briefly before she is dragged back down again and kicked and continuously struck in her head.

News.com.au

You can see the video at the link, but both of the women who assaulted the Korean tourist have been identified and arrested by police.

Remember this story of a Korean Olympic medaling fencer that was conned by a transgender fiancé? Here fiance has now been detained by police for fraud:

Olympic fencing silver medalist Nam Hyun-hee (Yonhap)

Police detained the former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee for investigation on charges of fraud and attempted fraud, officials said Tuesday.

Nam, the silver medalist in women’s foil at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, broke up with her 15-year-younger fiance Jeon Cheong-jo last week, days after revelations that Jeon was actually a woman with a history of fraud convictions.

Yonhap

The website Oddity Central has a good write up about this case and Jeon Cheong-jo’s long criminal history and the lies she used to get Nam to marry her:

However this Korea Herald article speculates that Nam might be an accomplice of Jeon’s frauds that he committed against people while engaged to Nam. What is really bizarre is that Jeon was committing frauds before meeting Nam where he was switching his gender identity depending on who he was defrauding. What a weird story.

You can read more at the link.