Could you imagine what the reaction would be if these were American servicemembers accused of this even if the story didn’t add up like this one apparently isn’t according to the report:

Eight Korean men are embroiled in a rape scandal in the Philippines, which has prompted other Korean expats there to fear for their safety.

Broadcaster GMA reported Monday that the eight Korean men are suspected of raping a Filipino woman in her 20s after plying her with alcohol and taking her to a hotel.

The Filipino broadcaster said the woman met one of the men in online chat and agreed to meet him for drinks. The woman says the two then went to another bar, where seven other Korean men sexually molested her and took her to a hotel where they raped her. She says the men physically assaulted her when she tried to resist and she had to go to hospital.

Police have not yet been able to find definitive evidence to corroborate the victims’ claims of rape.

The report created a public uproar in the Philippines and went viral on the Internet. But a Korean Embassy inspector says the woman’s claims do not add up.

The inspector told the Chosun Ilbo, “A close inspection of surveillance camera footage showed no trace of the seven other men who the woman claimed took part in the rape.”

Police in the Philippines are investigating the prime suspect. An embassy official said, “We are concerned that the report by a major broadcaster could harm Korea’s image and lead to revenge attacks on Koreans. We plan to seek a review of the police investigation and launch an official response.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

Hopefully the truth will eventually come out, but this is another example of why people should wait and see facts come out before drawing conclusions on crimes like this.  However, she did go to the hospital which should be able to provide a wealth of physical and forensic evidence to help determine if she was gang raped even if the video evidence does not support it.  So it will be interesting to see what comes of this case.

I just don’t see many of the South Korean chain stores ever making it big outside of Korean-American communities.  Can anyone picture Paris Baguette in major cities when it would be competing against someone like Panera Bread?. Can anyone think of a Korean chain that could make it big in the US?:

Korean firms are scrambling to set up shop in New York City as a litmus test for how ready they are for the global market. With the growing interest in Korean culture in the U.S., they feel this may be the right time to make inroads into the market.

Cosmetics firms are leading the trend. Amore Pacific opened its store at Bloomingdale’s department store in Manhattan last week, a first for a Korean cosmetic firm.

“To succeed in the global market, you first need to advance into New York, the trend-setting city,” said a company spokesman. Amore Pacific opened its first New York store in 2003 and now operates 26 in the city.

Laneige also opened an outlet in a big supermarket in the U.S. last year. Tonymoly started in New York in August last year and already operates six stores there.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I think a major luxury hotel brand like Lotte has a chance of gaining some market share in major cities but that is about it.  Cosmetics may have a chance of gaining some market share as well, but I think even that will be challenging.

I can remember many years ago when the anti-US groups were complaining about US diplomats and servicemembers not paying their parking tickets.  It is interesting you don’t hear a peep from any groups about Chinese and Russian diplomats not paying their tickets:

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Tuesday that it would strengthen enforcement of traffic violations by foreign embassy vehicles in Korea in an effort to curb immunity and collect unpaid fines.

Diplomats in Korea are obligated to pay penalties for traffic violations, but police enforcement over them has not been strict due to immunities granted by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which was signed in 1969.

The number of traffic violations by Foreign Service workers has risen sharply over the last four years, rising from nine incidents in 2012 to 81 last year. The Korean police long relied on traffic enforcement cameras for surveillance of foreign service workers, but with the new measures, field crackdown is expected to be implemented with full force.

The police will forward requests to the embassies regarding the matter. The countries that have fully paid the penalties are the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Japan. The countries that have registered the highest number of violations in the last three years are Russia (23), China (12), the U.S. (12) and Mongolia (10).  [Korea Herald]

Some how I don’t think this issue is going to make it very high up on President Park’s priority list:

A famous gay sauna in Seoul has banned old, unattractive foreigners, according to a source who was refused entry.

Black is a gay bathhouse in Shinnonhyeon, Seoul that made the headlines in 2012 when the owner was arrested for allowing gays to have sexual intercourse in his public bathhouse.

About 20 people were engaging in a sexual act when the police burst into the sauna according to media reports.

The business still thrives today as people consider it to be a “hot place” but people are also being turned down because they are too old, too fat or from an ethnic minority.

“When trying to visit there I was rejected saying that this place was only for KOREAN PEOPLE,” the source said on the Consumer Complaints Forum of The Korea Observer.

“Clearly foreigners for them means white people and not Asian because I saw a Chinese guy going inside which is a clear discrimination based on race. I was very offended by this policy.”

He said it was very disappointing to see “an already discriminated minority such as being gay goes on to discriminate against another minority such as being a foreigner.”  [Korea Observer]

You can read the rest at the link, but the bathhouse says it only discriminates against unattractive foreigners who are fat or old.  For those that are wondering this is actually perfectly legal in Korea because there are no laws that forbid discrimination by business owners based on race in Korea.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/611461194960908288

A South Korean Army chaplain offers a prayer to an injured solider as he takes part in a field training exercise for South Korean and U.S. military chaplains at the Army’s Special Warfare Command in Seoul on June 16, 2015. (Yonhap)

It is probably smart that the nationalities of these expats are not being released because I can just see some people trying to blame a certain nationality for the MERS spread:

Dozens of foreigners have been put in quarantine for Middle East respiratory syndrome, but health authorities have yet to identify all of their nationalities, sources said Tuesday.

The Health and Welfare Ministry said that about 20 to 30 foreigners in Korea were ordered to be under home monitoring as they were suspected to have been exposed to MERS-confirmed patients.

As of Tuesday, more than 5,000 individuals in the country are being monitored at home for possible infection.

The exact number and nationality of those concerned has not been fully confirmed because the information of their home countries was not collected in the initial stages of the screening, according to the ministry.

“Once the MERS response team sends the list of those that they assume could be foreigners, we first identify based on names whether they are Korean nationals or not, and then proceed with the personal identification. So far, it may be uncertain, but there are believed to be around 20 to 30 expats under quarantine monitoring,” a Health Ministry official who is in charge of foreign affairs told The Korea Herald.

“The nationality identification is underway, but even if everything is confirmed, their nationalities will be kept confidential because of diplomatic issues,” she said, adding that some countries ask that the information not be released.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

There is no doubt that when it comes to schooling in South Korea the competitiveness between teenagers can reach extreme levels to include high rates of suicide.  This latest scandal is just another example of some of the negative affects of the hyper competitiveness with education in Korea:

Two weeks ago, a South Korean “math prodigy” made headlines across the country after claiming that she had been accepted into two prestigious American universities, Stanford and Harvard.

Kim Jung-yoon, a senior at Thomas Jefferson high School for Science and Technology in Virginia, rose to fame after media reported that the top-tier universities had competed to recruit her to their undergraduate programs and ended up creating a special shared program only for her to study at both schools.

According to the reports, the 18-year-old girl secured a rare chance to study at both schools and choose where to graduate from. Kim showed acceptance letters from the schools to back her claims.

Kim was featured on radio talk shows while her father contributed to the hype by conducting interviews with local news outlets.

The reports on Kim’s achievement sparked envy among Koreans who have been living in a climate where admission into top universities is seen as key to elevating their social status.

But about a week later, her whole story was unraveled, with both Harvard and Stanford universities denying the acceptance of the Korean student. The universities confirmed that there was no such joint program allowing a student to study at both schools, calling the acceptance letters provided by Kim forgeries.

Kim, who appears to have masterminded the whole furor herself, immediately went from being idolized to ridiculed, with her father apologizing last week for causing a stir and promising to take care of her mental health.

Putting aside the reason behind her scam, the scandal appeared to leave a bitter aftertaste here, as it bluntly illustrated the country’s avid obsession with academic elitism and a competitive media industry prone to lapses of judgment.

A 28-year-old student said he could sympathize with her as he understands what it feels like to fail to enter top-tier universities and to be treated like a “loser” in Korean society.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link, but the teenager came up with the lie initially probably to get her parents off of her back, but the dad then publicized it in the media.  If he had not publicized it then this would have just been a family issue when the lie would have eventually been exposed.  So the adults, the dad and the journalists who ran the story are more at fault in my opinion than the teenager.  You would think before publishing a story the journalists would have picked up the phone to call the universities to make sure the claims are accurate.

As far as the over competitiveness within the Korean education system; I think it is better than what we see in many US schools where there is an extreme lack of educational competitiveness from both the kids and the parents.

North-South family reunions: contact cut off afterwards and gifts confiscated http://t.co/xeC3AIEKZn

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 16, 2015

A new type of anti-ship rocket, which is being deployed at the North’s naval units, is launched from a warship as the communist country conducts a test-firing drill of the rocket, in this photo released on June 15, 2015, by the North’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper. The paper, published by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea., did not report when the test was carried out. (Yonhap)