Rescue workers take part in a drill at a peak of Mount Bukhan in northern Seoul on Oct. 8, 2015, simulating a victim hit by a mountain climbing-related accident. (Yonhap)
Does everyone remember the Itaewon Burger King murder case? Well it is back for round two of two decade long effort to convict the then dependent of USFK contractor of murdering a Hongik University student back in 1997:
The two original suspects in a high-profile 1997 Itaewon murder case could potentially be brought back together today in a preparatory session before the start of legal proceedings in the trial against 36-year-old American Arthur Patterson.
Patterson and his friend, Edward Lee, were accused of killing Hongik University student Cho Jung-pil at a fast food restaurant on April 3, 1997, in Itaewon, a popular foreigner-friendly district in central Seoul.
Cho was found dead in the bathroom of a Burger King, stabbed nine times in his neck and chest. The two men, then 18, were both in the restaurant at the time of the murder and both pinpointed the other in the killing.
Lee, a Korean-American, was later convicted for the murder but was acquitted of those charges in 1998 by the Supreme Court, which ruled that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the murder had been carried out by one man.
He will attend as a witness in the trial against Patterson, who was originally charged and convicted for weapons possession and destruction of evidence before fleeing to the United States in 1999.
“We have confirmed that Lee … is currently staying in Korea,” a prosecutor from the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday, adding that it was planning to request Lee as a witness in the preparatory session to be held at the Seoul Central District Court.
The same day, Lee’s father appeared on a radio program to reiterate that his son would testify in the case.
“My son came to Korea about a month ago and he will attend [the preparatory session] as a witness,” he said. “We want the case closed this time so that we can finally be free from it.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link and you can read more about this case at this prior posting. Basically this whole case comes down to incompetence in the Korean judicial system to let these two go free in the first place. This was a brutal murder that the family deserves justice for.
South Korea loses Division (-) size element of Soldiers every year to people giving up their citizenship to avoid mandatory ROK military service:
More than 16,000 South Korean men have relinquished their nationality to avoid the mandatory military service in recent years, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.
A total of 4,386 men opted for foreign citizenship in 2014, up from 3,470 men in 2011, said Rep. Jin Sung-joon of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, citing data of the Military Manpower Administration submitted to the National Assembly for an annual audit.
In the first seven months of this year, 2,374 men gave up their nationality to avoid the military service, Jin said.
By nationality, most men became citizens of the United States, followed by Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Jin said. [Korea Observer]
You can read the rest at the link, but it was an interesting statistic that 10% of Koreans in public service successfully avoided completing their military service obligation.
I always wondered if the various tombs in South Korea still had cultural relics left in them and apparently some of them still do:
Authorities said Tuesday that they had rounded up four people who illegally excavated two ancient burial sites in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang.
According to the Gyeongsan Police Precinct, those arrested include a 65-year-old antique dealer surnamed Park, who is alleged to have stolen artifacts from the two graves. They are questioning three others employed by Park for the project.
“We suspect that they began digging near the burial sites in January last year to make a hole large enough for a man to crawl in,” said a police officer. “They dug the hole gradually at night over two months.”
Police added that the burial mounds were surrounded by dense woods before being recently refurbished.
Investigators confiscated 38 artifacts from the graves, including golden earrings, silver swords, crowns and belts, though they believe the suspects made away with more artifacts. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Photographer Mihaela Noroc is on a mission to document diverse beauty by photographing women in every country of the world. Last month, that odyssey took her to North Korea.
“When entering North Korea you step in a different world,” Noroc wrote in a description of the series for The WorldPost. “You already know that you will see huge monuments, statues and communist celebrations but you almost know nothing about North Korean women.”
Noroc, 30, quit her job in Romania to work on the “The Atlas of Beauty” photography project, which has taken her to dozens of countries, from Ethiopia to Iran. [Huffington Post]
You can see her photos of North Korea women at the above link.
This incident shows a cultural difference in Korea many Americans may not realize. In the US people would likely intervene to stop what was going on, however in Korea intervening and getting into an altercation could lead to a lawsuit. That is why I recommend to foreign visitors and residents in Korea to not intervene in situations like this unless there are a whole bunch of Korean friends to act as witnesses. The foreigner’s word against a Korean’s usually does not turn out well at the police station. It is best to call the police and take video to give to the police like the Canadian that took this video did.
Who knew siphoning off school lunch food could be so lucrative?:
A private high school in Seoul allegedly served terrible meals to students, and 18 people, including the principal, are accused of embezzling about 400 million won ($343,000) from the lunch budget.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education revealed on Sunday the result of three inspections of Choongam High School’s school meal system from May to August this year.
“We’ve found problems in the school meal system and evidence of embezzlement that adds up to at least 410 million won,” the education office said. “We’ve reported 18 people, including the principal, administrative officer and school meal subcontractors, to the prosecution and requested some of them be sacked.”
The school has been criticized for terrible food, and its vice principal openly scolded students who did not pay for meals.
A teacher said in a radio interview that the school did not replace cooking oil until it turned black and fried dishes sometimes had black powder on them.
The school is suspected to have tried to cover up the facts when the education office was about to start its inspection in May.
According to an education office inspection report acquired by the JoongAng Ilbo, a subcontractor who delivered food to the school was told to “only talk about the business and tell nothing about other affairs when the education office calls” by a former executive of the school meal subcontractor.
“Employees of subcontractors did not properly answer questions,” an official of the inspector’s office said, “and they appeared to be hiding something.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Recent satellite imagery shows no signs of North Korea making rocket or nuclear test preparations, rendering it impossible for such a test to happen on or before a key national holiday this week, a U.S. research institute said Monday.
Concerns have persisted that the North could conduct such tests around the 70th anniversary on Oct. 10 of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions after Pyongyang strongly hinted at such possibilities.
But commercial satellite imagery, taken as recently as Sept. 27, shows that there is no such preparation going on at the North’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station or the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, making it impossible for such tests to take place this week, said Joel Wit, editor of the website 38 North.
“I think the bottom line here is that all these reports about possible long-range rocket or nuclear tests on or before Oct. 10th are just all wrong, all speculation. No evidence to support it whatsoever,” Wit said at a press briefing.
“I would even go as far to say that the North Koreans are probably having a lot of fun with their periodic interviews, talking about how it’s their right to launch a space-launch vehicle and explore space and everyone runs off and writes a story about it as if it’s going to happen tomorrow and it isn’t,” he said. [Yonhap]
