A member of Save Korean Dogs, an activist group opposing the dog meat trade, stages a solo rally in Seoul on July 11, 2017, to express the group’s objection to eating dog meat and call for the government to enact a law prohibiting dog-meat consumption. (Yonhap)
A police officer uses a device in a bathroom at the Han River Pool in Seoul on July 11, 2017, to detect whether there is a hidden camera as part of efforts to rid public places of privacy infringement. (Yonhap)
It is pretty incredible that this guy rapes and assaults a female high school student in South Korea and gets no jail time:
A Korean man who fled the country after raping a minor was repatriated after committing the same crime in Australia, according to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Thursday.
The rapist, surnamed Hwang, 35, was initially sentenced to 30 months’ jail, suspended for four years, in 2010 for raping and assaulting a female high school student.
But during his probation, police and the prosecutors’ office investigated Hwang for breaking and entering in June 2012.
Sensing his probation would be cancelled, Hwang fled to Australia after a layover in the Philippines in July 2012.
The Korean court sentenced Hwang to an additional eight months in prison in his absence.
But even in Australia, Hwang’s old habits continued.
He was eventually caught and an Australian court sentenced him to nine years in prison on four charges of rape and attempted rape during his stay in New South Wales. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but this is another example of past lenient sentences for sex criminals in South Korea. These past sentences were so weak that a Korean family had the rape of their son by a Camp Jackson NCO transferred to the US military legal system instead of being tried in a ROK civilian court. The NCO rapist received a 30 year sentence for his crime while the guy in the above article rapes a high school student and goes free.
One of the worst sentences I have seen is when a 19-year old US Army private was raped by a taxi cab driver that picked her up at Incheon International Airport and he received no jail time because she did not resist enough.
Here is the typical response from the Pentagon to North Korean provocations:
A U.S. B-1B bomber drops an inert bomb on a mock target during its joint drill with South Korea’s fighter jets on July 8, 2017, in this photo provided by the Air Force. (Yonhap)
Two U.S. long-range strategic bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula on Saturday in a stern warning to North Korea for its long-range missile launch last week.
The B-1B Lancers based in Guam practiced “attack capabilities,” accompanied by South Korea’s F-15K and the U.S. Air Force’s F-16 fighter jets, for several hours in the joint show of force, according to the allies.
In a rare move, they made public a photo and footage of the bombers dropping inert GBU-56 laser guided bombs onto a mock target at the Pilsung range in Gangwon Province. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but of interest is that the ROK Air Force escorted the B-1’s across the Korean peninsula and then handed off the escort to the Japanese Air Self Defense Force who escorted the bombers across the East China Sea back to Guam after the flight over the Korean peninsula. That is actually great to see the cooperation between the ROK and Japan which I am sure the Kim regime took notice of.
I foresee this being the opening gesture by the Moon administration towards some kind of freeze deal with North Korea that has a growing chorus from experts and the media:
President Moon Jae-in speaks about peace on the Korean Peninsula, inter-Korean relations and unification at the old city hall of Berlin, Germany, Thursday. The non-profit Korber Foundation invited the President to the event. / Yonhap
President Moon Jae-in said Thursday he will seek to pursue a peace treaty with North Korea, taking a step forward for inter-Korean reconciliation despite Pyongyang’s test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) two days earlier.
Moon’s pledge comes after North Korea and China have repeatedly called for the signing of a peace treaty with the United States to formally end the Korean War and settle the security crisis on the peninsula.
The President appeared to be seeking U.S. support in his push for a peace treaty as the U.S., on behalf of the United Nations, signed the 1953 armistice agreement with North Korea and China. South Korea was not among the signatories.
“We should make a peace treaty joined by all relevant parties at the end of the Korean War to settle a lasting peace on the peninsula,” Moon said during his Korean-language invitational speech at the Korber Foundation, a nonprofit think tank in Berlin. “I will take a comprehensive approach to North Koream nuclear issues to pursue the peace treaty along with complete denuclearization (in the region.)” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but remember North Korea does not want peace, it wants peace treaty negotiations. There is a big difference.
A group of Thai women were recently rescued in Busan after a supermarket worker tipped off police:
The note the woman handed to the supermarket clerk. / Yonhap
A Thai woman’s wits have led to her rescue and that of four others from a brothel in South Korea.
The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency revealed the case on Wednesday.
The incident started when the five women visited a Busan supermarket on May 16 under the “guidance” of a Korean man.
The women were regular customers who visited late at night to buy daily necessities.
On May 16, the women bought products while the Korean man stood just outside the supermarket. But something unusual happened when they paid the bill.
As one of the women extended her cash-filled hand to the casher, he realized there was more there than he expected — a hand-written SOS message hidden inside the cash.
“Help the police. I was caught in the fourth floor of the building,” read the note in English, Korean and Thai. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but it seems like the police in Busan were not to motivated to find these women.
