Tag: South Korea

What gets me is that the ROK authorities did not jail this Chinese fisherman, but instead just booked him and let him go:

The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was arrested on Friday over allegedly operating near the inter-Korean maritime border and using an illegal drug, the South Korean Coast Guard said.

Coast guard officers found methamphetamine inside the boat that they seized in waters off Socheong Island in Incheon, west of Seoul, the previous day.

On Thursday, they confiscated 0.12 gram of the drug and an inhaler from the ship’s pilothouse after taking it to a coast guard station in Incheon. During an investigation into the captain, whose name was withheld, the 48-year-old man confessed that he had bought them shortly before the boat left the port of Donggang in China’s Liaoning Province around 5 p.m. on June 9, they said.

The captain, who purchased the drug and the inhaler from an acquaintance for 240 yuan and 20 yuan respectively, is suspected of inhaling the stimulant three times when the boat sailed near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the inter-Korean de facto western maritime border, this month.

He has also administered the drug about 10 times in China since last year, they said. “I used the drug in secret at the pilothouse to beat fatigue,” he was quoted as saying. He tested positive in a urine test for the drug.

The Coast Guard plans to book the Chinese man without physical detention on charges of suspected violation of the illegal fishing control law concerning South Korea’s exclusive economic zone. In addition, it will book him on suspicion of violating the drug control law.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I maintain that the ROK should jail these guys and auction off their boats.  This would be needed to deterrent to stop the illegal fishing.

Here is a general safety note to everyone, do not let strange people into your apartment that you just met in the elevator:

The 36-year-old sex offender arrested last Saturday for allegedly murdering a 60-year-old woman in Gaepo-dong, southern Seoul, did not know his victim as he claimed.

Police now say he stalked a complete stranger, sneaked into her house to rape her and then killed her so he wouldn’t get caught.

After his arrest on June 18, the suspect, surnamed Kim, claimed he met the victim while working at a real estate agency and had known her for about a month. He told police he asked her to lend him money and murdered her when she refused.

But investigators found no record of calls or texts between the two.

Under questioning, Kim changed his story. According to police, Kim saw the victim in a parking lot on June 14, two days before the murder. Security camera footage caught him in the same parking lot as the victim.

He tailed her as she drove to her residence because he wanted to develop a “good relationship” with her, Kim said, according to police. He followed her into the apartment building elevator and introduced himself as an insurance salesman, a profession he had started to study.

He asked to come inside her apartment to tell her about policies and she agreed. When she punched the code into the security keypad of her apartment, he noted the combination of numbers.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but this guy was out on parole after being jailed for 10 years for a prior sexual assault and was forced to wear an ankle bracelet.  However, it broke and no one was tracking him when he committed the crime.

A night of drinking on a South Korean fishing boat led to the murder of its captain and chief engineer in the Indian Ocean:

Korea Coast Guard officers have taken into custody two Vietnamese crewmen who allegedly killed the Korean captain and chief engineer of a fishing boat.

The detention was made at Port of Victoria in Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, Thursday night, as the Korean vessel arrived there four days after the alleged killings.

The coast guard officers are now bringing the suspects to Korea.

According to the coast guard, seven of its officers boarded the vessel, Kwang Hyun 803, with local police when a pilot was boarding around 10:10 p.m. local time. The coast guard gained control of the ship and had the vessel steered to the pier. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the two suspects have been flown back to Korea from the Seychelles to be investigated.

According to this survey working as a mascot in front of a store in the sweltering heat is the worst summer job in South Korea:

Standing outside a shop in a full-size mascot costume trying to entice customers inside is the worst summer job in Korea, according to a survey.

Part-time job portal website Albamon released the results of a survey asking 1,340 student workers what they thought were the best and worst part-time jobs for the summer.

Of the respondents, 30.3 percent of replied that their nightmare job was working as a mascot in a giant, sweltering costume.

Meanwhile, 19.5 percent of respondents chose parking attendant as the worst job. They said that high temperatures in parking lots as well as harmful vehicle emissions made the job unpleasant. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I once worked at a restaurant a long time ago as a teenager and one of my jobs was be the guy that would wear a bear costume to promote the restaurant or go to catered events.  The mascot gear fortunately had a little fan inside of it, but when that fan was not working it was incredibly hot to wear so I can understand why this is an undesirable summer job in South Korea. However, I would rather do that than be a parking attendant smelling exhaust all day.

A South Korean expedition, led by climber Ko Sang-don, pose after scaling the 6,190-meter-high summit of Denali, the highest mountain peak in North America, on June 18, 2016. Sponsor Kolping Co. provided this photo. (Yonhap)

It is amazing how interconnect the world has become when Britain leaving the European Union is having financial ripple effects across the entire world to include in South Korea:

Korea’s stocks and currency plunged as investors panicked over the possible fallout of Britain’s surprise vote to exit from the EU, dealers said.

Analysts said growing uncertainties on global financial markets, triggered by the Brexit, will overshadow the sluggish Korean economy. They ruled out any immediate huge direct impact on the real economy, but said it will weaken overall investment and consumer sentiment.

The benchmark KOSPI closed down 3.09 percent at 1,925.24 points. The tech-loaded KOSDAQ market plunged 4.76 percent to 647.16.

The won tumbled, closing at 1,179.9 won against the dollar, losing 29.7 won from the previous day.

Analysts said the Seoul stock market will remain weak for the time being on growing uncertainties in global financial markets. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is an update on the aftermath of the Gangnam murder case:

Korea on Wednesday unveiled a series of measures aimed at creating a more equal society for women, about a month after a woman was killed by a stranger in a high-traffic neighborhood in Seoul.

The murder sent a shockwave through a nation that has made strides in recent years but apparently leaves much to be desired in areas of gender equality.

The measures announced Wednesday focus on preventing hate crimes against women, better protecting victims of such crimes and raising awareness for gender equality in the country, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said. It held ministerial-level talks with the Ministry of Education and the National Police Agency.

The measures are a follow-up to the first batch announced earlier this month when Korea decided to seek the maximum default sentence for hate crimes against women and actively appeal sentences that fall short.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the murder of the young Korean woman in Gangnam reminds me so much of the Orlando shooting debate.  The scale of the two murders is no where near the same, but both led to false national debates.  For the Orlando shooting the debate has centered on banning so called “assault rifles” though no one has shown any evidence the terrorist would not have shot up that night club if every AR-15 in the country was confiscated.  The real problem appears to be once again a person with a history of mental trouble that was easily influenced by radical Islamic extremism.

In the Gangman murder the national debate in Korea has been about hate crimes against women when the murderer for years was in and out of mental hospitals and became homeless because his family could no longer handle caring for him due to his mental illness.  In my opinion the national debate to respond to both murder incidents does not address the core problems, but instead have been hijacked by activists to push pet political causes.

This announcement by North Korea makes it pretty clear that they are deliberately organizing the Chinese fishing boats to intrude into South Korea as a form of asymmetric warfare against the South:

North Korea on Monday slammed South Korea for its operation with the United Nations Command (UNC) to repel Chinese fishing boats operating illegally in neutral waters between the two Koreas, calling the move a “military provocation.”

This marks the North’s first official reaction to South Korea and the UNC’s joint crackdown on Chinese fishing vessels operating in the neutral waters of the Han River estuary.

Fishing vessels that are officially registered with either South or North Korea are allowed into the neutral waters. Each side could send military police officers into the no man’s land to enforce rules under the armistice agreement.

South Korea’s move is aimed at “escalating the intrusion into the hotspot waters in the West Sea of Korea into the inland to secure a chance for military provocation,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English dispatch.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I continue to believe if the ROK seizes the illegal Chinese fishing boats and then auctions them off and gives jail time to the crew members that would end the incentive for these people to illegally fish in South Korean waters.

The argument that illegal immigrants in the United States will not self deport is often made to explain why they should just be given amnesty.  As the case with South Korea shows illegal immigrants there self deported once they had a viable option to seek legal status:

An amnesty program for overstaying foreigners is having an unexpected consequence: Korea is suddenly short of nannies, restaurant help and construction workers.

In April, the Ministry of Justice announced an amnesty for people who overstayed their visas or illegally immigrated. It said that they could apply for overseas Korean visas, known as F-4, if they left Korea and went home in the next six months.

This was the first time the ministry has promised to allow all overstayers to apply for visas to return to Korea.

The amnesty is working. Over 12,000 foreigners who were in Korea illegally left the country from April to May, twice the 5,300 who left in the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Justice.   (…………)

“When I went to Incheon airport at 5 a.m., the third floor was crowded with illegal immigrants waiting to leave,” said Lee Byung-chun, who works for the Han-a administrative agency.    [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but the big different though with South Korea compared to the US is that there isn’t an entire political party trying to lock in the illegal immigrant vote.  This is likely why Korea was able to successfully implement immigration reform and the United States cannot.

This is just another example of why South Korea has such a low birthrate, couples are getting married much later in life:

The average age of the first marriage for South Korean men and women rose by over two years over the past decade.

Local matchmaking firm Duo on Tuesday released a report on 15-hundred couples who tied the knot between June 2014 and May this year through its services.

According to the report, the average age for the first marriage for men and women came to 35-point-eight years and 32-point-seven years, both rising two-point-four years from ten years ago.

Twenty-three percent of the men earned 40 to 50 million won a year on average, while 36 percent of the women earned 30 to 40 million won a year on average.  [KBS World Radio]

I was actually a little surprised at how high the marriage age number was.  However, when one considers the wedding expenses and the costs to buy a home in South Korea couples are going to need more time to save money to afford to get married.