I did not realize that serving in a research institute was a way to avoid mandatory military service. This does not seem like a fair alternative to mandatory military service compared to the guys that have to join the ROK military or National Police:
After announcing on Tuesday that military service exemptions for college students of natural sciences and engineering will not extend beyond 2023, the Ministry of National Defense has backpedaled from this decision. Initially, the ministry said that it expects that there will be a shortage of able-bodied Korean men to serve in the military from 2020 and that it will subsequently get rid of the current exemption measure.
The announcement has resulted in an immediate backlash from engineering and natural science students from Kaist, Seoul National University, Postech and other universities as well as from small- and medium-sized companies and agencies that count on the added talent of young men.
But Moon Sang-gyun, spokesman of the Defense Ministry, said in a briefing on Thursday that the plan to get rid of the current exemption measure was one that “has been in under constant review since the early 2000s.”
He added, “The plan is under review in related ministries and agencies, however there has been a misunderstanding that the measure is already confirmed, causing controversy beyond what is needed.”
Under the current exemption measure, individuals who are eligible to be drafted for two-year compulsory military service can instead serve out their term as a conscripted police officer, firefighter, in the coast guard or in another relevant agency, company or research institute. Graduate students in natural sciences or engineering at top schools are in especially high demand at research institutes and small- and medium-sized companies. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Flanked by police officers, the suspect behind the brutal murder of a 23-year-old woman enters a karaoke bar near a subway station in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district on May 24, 2016, to stage a reconstruction. The 34-year-old man fatally knifed the victim in the bar’s bathroom a week ago in an alleged random crime, whipping up a nationwide outpouring of mourning. (Yonhap)
The recent murder of a Korean woman in Gangnam is being used to bring attention to the issue of violent crime against women. Now Vice News has jumped on the bandwagon to publish an article criticizing a culture that allows violent crimes against women in South Korea to occur:
ourners march during a rally on Saturday to pay tribute to a South Korean woman who was stabbed to death near Gangnam Station in Seoul. [AP/NEWSIS]
For years now, South Korea has been trying to build a legal system to deal with the problem. As Dr Kyungja Jung, of the University of Technology Sydney told me, the country has come far since the days when police themselves would sexually assault detained female activists.”There has been tremendous changes in legislation, services, and programs for the victims,” she said.
Neither is South Korea the only country struggling with the issue. All countries experience some baseline level of sexism and the latest numbers from the World Health Organisation suggest 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced sexual violence.
But South Korea, a country with one of the most influential youth cultures in Asia, is also a society with a deep gender inequality according to the World Economic Forum which ranks the nation 117 out of 142, putting it alongside Qatar and Nigeria.
This is a subject Koreans do not like to discuss, partly because defamation laws in the country are strong, making criticism of the government, police, or major corporations dangerous. Many of those I contacted over the last two weeks were afraid to talk for fear of a lawsuit, though few would say so outright.
When they responded, they were often “too busy.” One person who worked in a frontline support service for rape victims told someone who had contacted them on my behalf: “This is a sensitive issue and I am Korean.”
Those more willing to speak out were young activists. One male activist who worked on a team which monitored rapists on Sora.net told me that in 1995, seven out of 10 women were victims of violent crimes, but that number has increased to nine out of 10. Because I can’t speak Korean, I cannot easily verify those numbers, but I asked him why he thought that was. [Vice News]
You can read much more at the link, but in my opinion this article is poor journalism which this last excerpted paragraph is an example of. The writer admits that he can’t verify the statistic that 9 out of 10 women in South Korea were victims of violent crimes, but went ahead and published it anyway. If 90% of the women in Korea are victims of violent crime there would be a political revolution to improve public safety. The President is a woman so does anyone think she would stand for such a thing?
Poor Example
A random murder by a mentally deranged homeless person that had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals does not suddenly make South Korea a haven for violent crime against women. Speaking of this murderer the article made no mention that he was schizophrenic and instead led readers to believe he simply killed the woman because he hated women. This narrative is about as honest as the “gentle giant” narrative used by the US media after the Michael Brown shooting.
As far as some of the other examples used in the article such as the Australian woman interviewed and the man acquitted of rape because he had a curved man part I would like to hear the other side of the story because often these stories are never as simple as advocates claim them to be. With that all said the premise that South Korea has a problem investigating sexual assault cases I think is true, I just hate tabloid journalism being used to make this point.
Past Investigations
In the past South Korean authorities were just incompetent with dealing with violent crime against women. I can remember when a US soldier was raped shortly after she arrived at Incheon International Airport and the rapist was acquitted because the soldier did not resist enough. In another case the sentencing for rape was so light that whether the suspect committed robbery as was the focus of the case because it had more jail time. Then there is this case of a foreign English teacher who was brutally raped and forced to suffer police incompetence afterwards. Finally who can forget the Miryang Gang Rape case which was just a travesty.
I do have to admit that things have gotten better in recent years such as South Korea finally barring teachers convicted of sex crimes of getting their jobs back. Even the ROK military has launched a campaign to crackdown on sexual assault and harassment within their ranks which they have long been known for. What do the statistics say? Well they say arrests for rape have skyrocketed over the last decade.
It is important to keep in mind that just because arrests are up this does not necessarily mean that rape is up. It can be argued that due to awareness campaigns in South Korea women are now more likely to report rape and the police are taking the allegations more seriously.
How do these statistics stack up against the United States? With a population of 51 million people in South Korea and 20,045 rape arrests in 2014 this has a occurence rate of 1 in 2,544 people. The Department of Justice reported 284,350 rapes in the United States in 2014 and with a population of 318 million this comes out to an occurrence rate of 1 in 1,118 people. This is higher than South Korea, but keep in mind difference in statistic compilation does make comparisons difficult, but does give an indication that rapes are lower in South Korea than the US.
Conclusion
Today I think the problem is mostly how Korean police look differently at alcohol related sexual assaults than other countries. If Korea is like the US, the vast majority of rape cases are probably he said/she said cases that involve alcohol. When alcohol is involved South Korean authorities are well known for showing more leniency towards perpetrators though in recent years there has been some changes to the law. In the United States alcohol is not considered the mitigating factor for committing crime like it is in South Korea. In fact at least in the US military alcohol has been used as factor to over prosecute people for sexual assault.
This is an area I think women in Korea need to be aware of that a date rape type of scenario after a night of drinking alcohol, it is likely to be more difficult to get Korean authorities to vigorously investigate and prosecute the perpetrator. So looking at the facts South Korea does not necessarily have a violent crime problem against women, it just has a different perspective in regards to how vigorously it will prosecute these crimes when it involves alcohol. This perspective appears to be slowly changing with the increased rape arrests and I would not be surprised if arrests continue to increase in the coming years as societal attitudes towards the crime continue to change.
Considering some of the drunken and mentally unstable incidents I have seen happen on the Seoul subways this is a job I have a lot of respect for the people working it:
Wearing stab-proof vests over their uniform shirt, they patrol underground during duty hours. Their mission is to help secure safety of people and keep peace.
Policemen? No, they are Subway Guards helping prevent crimes and incidents and establish order at more than 300 subway stations in Seoul. (……)
Although guards do not have the power to arrest, unlike police officers, most of them are well-trained professionals, each mastering several martial arts.
“I majored in security science. I am a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo and fourth in Hapkido. Many guards here have similar backgrounds,” Han Ji-yong, Lee’s partner, said.
The number of guards for Seoul Metro has increased from 40 in 2011 to 133 this year. According to Seoul Metro’s data, the guards were involved in 53,448 cases of violations in 2015, up 20 percent from three years earlier. The daytime shift workers take on the job from early morning — 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. — and from then come nighttime shifters to work until the last train arrives at 1 a.m. Ten guards work each shift per line.
The work becomes tough when they have to face violent drunken passengers. “They are usually typical patriarchal men in their 50s and 60s,” Lee said. [Korea Herald]
I continue to be impressed with how the ROK government continues to find ways to honor United Nations and American Korean War veterans and their families and here is the latest example:
The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said Friday that 51 family members of 22 U.S. soldiers who were killed or went missing during the Korean War will visit South Korea between Saturday and next Thursday.
Arranged by the ministry, the families will visit Seoul National Cemetery, the War Memorial of Korea and the truce village of Panmunjeom at the inter-Korean border.
They will also attend a memorial service for the fallen U.S. soldiers during the Korean War. The service will be held at the Imjingak Pavilion at 10 a.m. on Monday.
The ministry vowed to host the families with hospitality and help them overcome the pains and grief of losing their beloved ones. It hoped that the visit will also help the families feel proud of their beloved ones, knowing their sacrifices were not in vain. [KBS World Radio]
You can read more at the link, but I have to think that the trip and memorial service has to help the surviving family members take pride in seeing what their loved one died for because Korea today has become one of the world’s great countries.
Using only an LG Electronics cordless vacuum cleaner, two-time U.S. rock climbing champion Sierra Blair-Coyle scales a 33-story skyscraper in Songdo, west of Seoul, on April 27, 2016, in this photo provided on May 23 by the company. LG said the 22-year-old female climber has succeeded in climbing the 140-meter-tall building carrying two LG Cord Zero Cykings on her back and using their suction power. (Yonhap)
Condolences to the family of this sailor that died in an incredibly strange accident down in Changwon:
A U.S. sailor died after plunging more than 120 feet down an elevator shaft at a South Korean hotel, officials said Monday.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason James “Jimmy” McLaughlin, 28, apparently was trying to climb out of the elevator after it got stuck between floors at the Hotel International in the city of Changwon over the weekend, police and fire officials said.
He was in cardiac arrest when rescue crews arrived and died after being taken to a hospital, they said. [Stars & Stripes]
This is the second group of overseas North Korean restaurant workers to defect to South Korea in the past two months. I have to wonder if ROK intelligence is focusing hard on getting North Korean restaurant workers to defect in an effort to close the restaurants and dry up a source of foreign currency for the Kim regime?:
Up to three North Korean restaurant staff have recently escaped their workplace in China for possible defection to South Korea, a source familiar with inter-Korean affairs said Monday.
The North Koreans are currently staying in a third country in Southeast Asia after running away from a North Korea-run restaurant located at the northwestern Chinese city of Xian, according to the source. [Yonhap]
Statistics from the 
