I had a cab driver do this to me before and I got out and thanked him for the free ride after recording his driver information:
The tourist police helped British visitors ripped off by a cab driver. Courtesy of Busan Metropolitan Police Agency
A taxi driver has been fined for overcharging British passengers.
According to police, the driver picked them up at the International Passenger Terminal in Busan Port on Wednesday morning, drove about two kilometers with the meter off and charged 20,000 won ($18), nearly four times the proper fare.
When the passengers told their Korean guide about the incident, the guide reported the driver to the tourist police, a special unit committed to handling complaints from foreign visitors.
Police confirmed the offense after looking at the vehicle’s dash cam and CCTV footage. The driver admitted he had overcharged the passengers.
A special prosecutor team led by Huh Ik-bum has demanded a five-year prison term for South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo over his alleged involvement in an online opinion rigging scandal.
At the final hearing on Friday, the team said Kim acted like a deviant politician by mobilizing a private group that engages in illegal acts and using public posts as bargaining chips for elections.
Kim, a close aide to President Moon Jae-in, is accused of approving a blogger and his associates’ development of a computer program called “King Crab,” which could be used to manipulate the number of likes for online comments.
The special counsel team believes Kim colluded with the blogger known as “druking” to manipulate comments on news articles with the program to benefit the ruling Democratic Party, then the opposition party, in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.
This is the first time I have heard of a female teacher in South Korea being jailed for having sex with her students:
A female teacher at a private cram school, or hagwon in Korean, was jailed for having sex with two teenagers she taught.
A district court in Uijeongbu sentenced the teacher, 29, to 10 years in prison for violating the Special Act on Sexual Violence that provides tough punishment for adults who have sex with those under 13 in any circumstances.
The court also ordered her to receive 80 hours of psychiatric treatment and banned her employment at an organization for children for 10 years.
She was charged with having sex with two boys she taught ― an elementary student and a middle school student ― between 2016 and 2017.
I wonder what the mental health of this guy is current is because this wasn’t a very well thought out robbery:
Police subdue an American caught after allegedly robbing a lottery shop near Haeundae beach in Busan, Wednesday. Courtesy of Busan Metropolitan Police Agency
An American who has lived in South Korea for 20 years was arrested for robbing a lottery shop in Busan, police said Thursday.
According to Haeundae Police Station, the U.S. citizen, 63, entered the shop near Haeundae beach masked on Wednesday night, assaulted its manager and got away with bundles of cash (510,000 won, or $451).
The manager followed him shouting for help. The American was caught after police shot him with a stun gun.
He reportedly told police he had committed the crime “for money.” According to police, the American entered the country in 1988 and taught English until 2011. He is jobless.
Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom denies spying on private citizens on Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]
Accusations that the Moon Jae-in Blue House spied on private citizens broadened on Tuesday after a local broadcaster reported that the presidential office’s special inspection bureau looked into a corruption allegation about Airport Railroad, a private operator of trains connecting Incheon International Airport and downtown Seoul.
After Channel A ran a report on its evening news show on Monday, the Blue House said it was a mere mistake: The bureau’s head erroneously thought the firm was a public company due to its “name and characteristic of work.”
Opposition parties aren’t buying that explanation. The Liberty Korea Party threatened to bring the case to the National Assembly for a parliamentary investigation unless the Moon Blue House clears everything up – instead of blaming mistakes or rogue elements.
You can read more at the link, but the only thing that I would surprised by is if anyone in the Moon administration is held accountable for the domestic spying. As we have seen with other Moon administration scandals they will go to great lengths to defend their allies.
As we have seen repeatedly the Moon administration is willing to go great lengths to protect their friends and punish their enemies. Now they are targeting a corruption whistleblower and letting the media know they will go after them as well if they continue to report his claims:
A former investigator with the Blue House special inspection bureau accused President Moon Jae-in’s top aides of covering up bribery allegations against Korean Ambassador to Russia Woo Yoon-keun and said he was kicked out of the prestigious Blue House team for looking into the case.
Kim Tae-wu, an investigator with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office who was temporarily dispatched to the Blue House last year to work for the special inspection bureau, told local media on Saturday that he was victimized for targeting Woo, a high-profile figure in Korean liberal politics who formerly served as a lawmaker in the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and has close ties with Moon. In an email to several media outlets, Kim said he wanted to shed light on the truth and recover his tarnished reputation.
Both the Blue House and Woo adamantly denied Kim’s claims that the envoy was bribed. In scathing remarks, Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s senior secretary for public affairs, referred to Kim as a “loach” in a written statement issued to Blue House correspondents on Saturday, saying the investigator was “completely muddying stream water” now that he’s been cornered.
Yoon added that the truth will soon be revealed and the Blue House will “certainly” press legal charges against Kim for the spread of false information and defamation. Yoon went on to express “deep regret” for the local media outlets who were writing stories based on “unilateral claims” from Kim. Kim was one of 20 to 30 members of the so-called special inspection bureau under the office of Cho Kuk, presidential senior secretary for civil affairs.
These drug smugglers must have forgot to pay someone off in the Mexican government to have this tip called in against them:
The Korea Customs Service announced Monday that they confiscated 63.88 kilograms (140.8 pounds) of cocaine that was smuggled into the Port of Busan. [NEWS1]
The Korea Customs Service announced Monday it confiscated a record amount of cocaine shipped into the Port of Busan.
According to customs officials, 63.88 kilograms (140.8 pounds) of cocaine was smuggled into the port, the largest amount of drugs found since the opening of Busan Harbor. Authorities estimated that market value was about 190 billion won ($168 million).
Customs authorities said the cargo left Mexico 20 days ago, arrived in Busan on Dec. 14 and was head to Tianjin, China.
Customs was tipped off about the smuggling by Mexican customs officials. The Korea Customs Service was told the drugs were concealed in 22 tons of recyclable copper scraps, packed in small plastic bags that were stuffed into two large black bags.
Charges of libel from Twitter messages from the wife of Gyeongi province Governor Lee Jae-myung have been dropped, but it appears unsurprisingly that Governor Lee was the primary target of the prosecutors all along:
Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung will stand trial for telling falsehoods about a series of allegations raised against him and about his family during his election campaign for the governorship. The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Lee without physical detention on charges of violating the national election law, it said. Lee has been under investigation for allegedly lying about his brother’s institutionalization due to a mental illness during his campaign in the runup to the June local elections. He denied when he appeared on TV debates as a governor candidate that he had used his authority as the then Seongnam mayor to have his now-deceased brother institutionalized against his will. The governor also faced accusations after an actress claimed she had an extramarital affair with Lee. Prosecutors decided to not press any charges against Lee, citing insufficient grounds. “It’s what I expected. I’m not baffled,” he told reporters following the prosecution announcement. Lee also hinted that he would not give up his seat over the indictment and will fight the matter in court. “I still am a proud member of the Democratic Party. I will do my utmost to not cause any more trouble for the party,” he said
You can read more at the link, but Governor Lee was a major rival to current President Moon Jae-in during the last election. The Moon administration has effectively eliminated him now as a future political rival.
The judge sentenced all 4 journalists to jail. Byun Hee-jai: 2 yrs, Hwang: 1 yr. Lee & Oh 6 mos. ea.+2 yrs probation+$4,454 fine ea. It was too much to expect a fair trial. Victims of the Moon Jae-in admin’s lawfare. A terrible day for #FreedomofthePress#RuleofLawhttps://t.co/MtPiqqyeuE
It appears that the Blue House is going after anyone remotely connected with former President Park Geun-hye, here is the latest example:
Shin Sung-chul
The president of KAIST, Korea’s top science and engineering university, is the target of a government inquiry that some suspect to be politically motivated.
The Science Ministry on Tuesday issued a request to KAIST’s board of trustees that it suspend Shin Sung-chul, KAIST’s incumbent president, six days after it formally recommended he be criminally charged for embezzlement and breach of duty.
The board will decide whether to suspend Shin after an internal meeting next Thursday.
“I cannot help but feel devastated that such accusations are being brought up now,” Shin said at a press conference at KAIST on Tuesday. “We already received a detailed government audit at DGIST [his former workplace where the irregularities are supposed to have occurred] back in 2016.”
But analysts are claiming political motives are behind the investigation.
Shin’s alleged misconduct dates to his days as the founding president of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), a lesser known public science and engineering institute located in Daegu.
DGIST signed a memorandum of understanding with an American research institute in February 2012. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) – better known as Berkeley Lab – agreed to provide DGIST with cutting edge research equipment from its Center for X-ray Optics in exchange for research fees from DGIST. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but apparently money from DGIST was sent to Berkeley for the equipment that the government is claiming was public grant money. Shin says the equipment was never supposed to be sent to DGIST for free by Berkeley and that public grants were not used to pay for it.
Here is why the Blue House is allegedly trying to get rid of Shin, he is an old elementary school friend of former President Park Geun-hye:
“Even if the government’s accusations are true, it is unclear how Shin can be accused of embezzlement when he himself did not take the money,” said Lee Byung-tae, a professor at KAIST’s Graduate School of Management. “Science Minister You Young-min himself said the issue was out of his hands, but this recent move looks like it has the Blue House behind it.”
Lee added that Shin’s decision to appoint Lim as a professor was completely within the realm of his discretion as university president. If wrongdoing is indeed clear, the board of trustees at KAIST can easily decide on their own to fire Shin, Lee said.
Shin has refused to step down from his position, saying he would make that decision once the board meets and reaches a conclusion.
An elementary school colleague of former President Park Geun-hye, Shin became KAIST’s president last February amid a controversial selection process in which he was accused of being a political appointment. Shin has not complained of political persecution.
