Yonhap is reporting that the deployment of THAAD to South Korea was not a major issue discussed during recent diplomatic meetings with Russia:
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se (L) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sign an agreement in Moscow on June 13, 2016, on the exchanges between their agencies for 2016-2017. In their bilateral talks, the two diplomats agreed to cooperate for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, Seoul officials said. (Yonhap)
The top diplomats of South Korea and Russia barely discussed the controversial issue of deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil during their talks earlier this week, a Seoul official said.
The senior official told South Korean reporters during a luncheon in St. Petersburg on Tuesday that the topic of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system was raised in the meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, but only in passing.
“(The Russian side) mentioned a confrontational structure in Asia but barely talked about it,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “This showed (Moscow’s) will to focus more on bilateral relations and the North Korean nuclear issue.”
Russia and China have strongly opposed the possible deployment of a THAAD battery to South Korea, claiming it would undermine the strategic balance in the region. Seoul and Washington insist the missile defense system, if placed in the South, would be purely defensive in the face of North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but in the past the Russian ambassador to North Korea complained that THAAD could potentially be used to shoot down Russian missiles fired at South Korea.
Another year and yet another cheating scandal in South Korea:
Operators of the ACT college entrance exam on Saturday canceled the tests for students in South Korea and Hong Kong at the last moment over what they said was a verified breach of test materials.
The cancellation affected about 5,500 test takers who will receive refunds of test fees, according to ACT spokesman Edward Colby, who said the company believes it was the first time the exam was canceled for an entire country.
The ACT, an Iowa-based nonprofit organization, had planned to administer the tests at 56 different locations in South Korea and Hong Kong on Saturday morning. The ACT decided to cancel the test soon after it received “credible evidence” that the test materials had been leaked, Colby said.
“We are extremely concerned about any activities that could impact the fairness and integrity of the test. When individuals attempt to profit by stealing test materials and selling them, it can hurt thousands of students who did nothing wrong, as it has in this case,” Colby said in an email conversation. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but cheating on these standardized tests has been a long term problem. It seems some Koreans tend to believe in the old military saying of “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”
A policeman has a driver breathe into Breathalyzer in a street in downtown Seoul during the day on June 14, 2016. The random crackdown on drunk drivers was conducted across the nation on that day as the number of victims of drunken driving has increasingly risen as of late. (Yonhap)
These African scammers sure are creative and their victims seem to get dumber and dumber:
African con artists have found another way to swindle Koreans, this time by selling pieces of regular paper that they claim are actually U.S. banknotes.
In this so-called “black money” or “money wash” scam, unsuspecting victims are persuaded that stacks of banknote-sized black pieces of paper are $100 bills that have been dyed black and smuggled from a U.S. relief fund for Africa. Wide-eyed victims then pay large amounts of money for heaps of black paper and a dye-remover machine or liquid, believing they have purchased U.S. dollars far below the exchange rate.
Last month, a 45-year-old Korean businessman was strolling through Itaewon, a popular neighborhood in Seoul known for its many cafes, bars and foreign restaurants, when a Liberian approached him and said he had a lucrative business proposal. After leading the Korean to a nearby parked van, he fed a piece of black paper into a small machine, and soon the device spit out a crisp $100 bill. The businessman took the bill to a bank, where he was told that it was genuine.
He paid 540 million won ($463,100) for the machine and a sizable portion of black paper. He borrowed the money from associates.
The machine was a simple paper dispenser previously loaded for the demonstration with a genuine banknote. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but it seems the victim is just as bad as the con artist if they though they were receiving stolen African aid money.
The suspect in the murder on Mount Sapae in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, changed his story and admitted he initially tried to rape the victim.
Uijeongbu police announced on Tuesday that they found problems with the suspected culprit’s denial of rape in the initial questioning.
“While conducting analysis at the crime scene and reconstructing the crime, we found some contradictions with the culprit’s testimony,” an official in charge said. “We then used a lie detector to find out that he actually had attempted to rape the victim before killing and robbing her.”
The suspected culprit, surnamed Jeong, confessed to having initially denied raping the victim in order to avoid heavier punishment. The 45-year-old turned himself in on Friday after strangling a 55-year-old woman to death and robbing her of cash on Mount Sapae on June 7. The body of the woman was found on Thursday morning by hikers.
According to police, Jeong brought a bottle of soju to the mountain in misery after finding out he only had 14,000 won ($11.87) left in his pocket. While roaming the mountain drunk, he allegedly spotted the victim sitting on a bench by herself and approached her from behind with the intention of raping her. Police say that after strangling her with his left arm and punching her in the head twice, he undressed her from the waist up and pulled down her pants, but when he realized the victim was dead he ran away with her wallet, which contained 15,000 won and a credit card. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
North Korea is using the 14th anniversary of the tragic 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident to bash the United States and call for a withdrawal of US troops from Korea:
Site of 2002 armored vehicle accident.
North Korean media urged South Koreans to turn toward anti-American sentiment and repel U.S. troops from South Korea, and mentioned the 2002 deaths of two schoolgirls crushed by a U.S. military vehicle.
The Yangju highway incident in South Korea, which happened 14 years ago today, was a tragic accident in which a U.S. military vehicle hit and crushed two Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun, both 14, while they walked beside a narrow country road on their way to a birthday party.
“Fourteen years ago today, two South Korean schoolgirls at the age of 14 were struck and killed by devilish homicidal American imperialists’ Caterpillar truck,” wrote state newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Monday, calling the incident “only one of many incidents in which American invaders have crushed the dignity and sovereignty of South Koreans.”
Pyongyang’s other publications also described the incident, and urged South Koreans to repel U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula.
“This evilest deed of all evil deeds is only capable of being carried out by the soldiers of an evil empire, which was built on the skulls and blood of Native Americans …” wrote state medial portal Uriminzokkiri. [NK News]
The arrest of the three men accused of gang raping a Korean teacher on the remote Korean island Heuksan-do has finally happened. Due to the public outrage it appears the Korean police are not going to give the perpetrators the benefit of using the “I was drunk excuse” so commonly used in these cases:
Three suspects have been charged with premeditated rape and assault in the investigation of a sexual assault case involving a female teacher in her 20s by three local men from Heuksan Island in Sinan County, South Jeolla.
The three suspects were scheduled to be sent to the prosecution today for further investigation. Each is a father of children in kindergarten, elementary or middle school. The children of two of the suspects are attending the school where the victim worked. They were arrested by police last Saturday, after the victim reported the crime.
One of the suspects, surnamed Park, 49, owns the restaurant where the teacher was having dinner prior to the crime on May 21. He and one other suspect, Lee, 34, are accused of having invited the teacher to join them and getting her drunk.
After the victim became intoxicated, Park brought her to a building at an elementary school at 11:00 p.m in his car while Lee followed. About 30 minutes later, police say, the other suspect, Kim, 38, drove to the elementary school building, as well.
The police initially planned to impose less severe charges on the three since they claimed the rape was not planned.
“The testimonies of the three suspects didn’t match,” said a police officer. “They seemed to have lied when they said the crime was not plotted.”
But given that the three suspects live in the same neighborhood, contacted each other before and after the crime and went inside the building and raped the victim in sequence, the police charged them with premeditated rape. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link. Also for those wondering where Heuksan-do island is located at here is a Google Map of its location:
Incredibly the arrest of one of the suspects surnamed Kim has been linked to a 2007 rape in Daejon. The DNA found on the teacher matched the DNA found on the victim in the Daejon case. Due to the victim speaking out about this rape she may have gotten a serial rapist off the streets. It seems like if someone wanted to lie low and hide out somewhere Heuksando would be a place to go.
South Korea’s national team wrestlers work out rigorously at the Taeneung National Training Center in Seoul on June 10, 2016, for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August. Chung Mong-gyu, chief of the South Korean Olympic delegation, visited the center on the same day with 57 days before the Games begin. (Yonhap)
The whole issue with the succession issues and now government raid of Lotte Group is playing out like a Korean television drama:
Investigators carry out confiscated documents after raiding the headquarters of the Seoul-based Lotte Group on June 10, 2016. (Yonhap)
Prosecutors raided the headquarters of South Korea’s retail giant Lotte Group, as well as its six affiliates, on Friday over allegations of embezzlement and malpractice.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said it sent some 200 investigators to 17 places, including the group’s headquarters in central Seoul, its major affiliates and the homes of some executives.
Hotel Lotte Co., TV channel Lotte Homeshopping and its key retail unit Lotte Shopping Co. were all raided.
Prosecutors said they confiscated computer hard drives, accounting books and other documents in their asset transactions.
Travel bans have been put out for some of the company’s senior officials, according to prosecutors. Some of the executives are accused of making secret funds by exaggerating unit prices in contracts with their subcontractors.
Prosecutors also suspect the group created slush funds while making transactions between its affiliates.
“We could no longer postpone the raid as there have been tips that evidence was being destroyed,” a senior prosecutor said.
The conglomerate, which has sprawling businesses in both South Korea and Japan, has been riddled with a series of scandals from last year, including a high-profile fight between brothers for managerial control and the recent prosecutors’ probe into the group’s duty-free business unit.
Hotel Lotte Co., which has been preparing to list its shares later this month, postponed the proposed initial public offering (IPO) to next month as its senior officials have come under investigation over alleged bribery.
Prosecutors raided the hotel unit and the house of Shin Young-ja, the head of Lotte Foundation and daughter of group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, over the allegations last week.
The 74-year-old Shin and other company officials are suspected of receiving kickbacks from Jung Woon-ho, chief of the scandal-ridden cosmetics brand Nature Republic, in return for favorable space in Lotte’s duty-free shops. Both Shin and Hotel Lotte flatly denied the allegations. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if we see Mr. Shin show up in court in a wheel chair?
I don’t think there is any more danger for women on Korean mountains than there would be in the city. That is why I don’t think these recent murders should cause people to avoid hiking in Korea:
When a 55-year-old female hiker was found dead this week on a mountain in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, police officers didn’t want to think she was murdered.
Just 10 days before and 7 kilometers (4 miles) away on a different mountain, a 60-year-old woman was stabbed to death by a man recently released from prison. Murders are hardly common at spots where people hike, a favorite Korean pastime.
But on Thursday, police acknowledged that the 55-year-old appears to have been choked to death. Autopsy results found bruises “all over her body.”
A sexual assault is also possible.
Police are now wondering whether lone female hikers have become new targets for brutal killings.
“When a murder case unfolds on a mountain, very rarely can you find a witness,” said Lee Yoon-ho, a police administration professor at Dongguk University in Jung District, central Seoul.
The police have no suspects in the alleged murder case on Mount Sapae (1,808 feet), where the 55-year-old was choked, which is one of the most popular hiking destinations in Gyeonggi.
A lot of women say they are less keen to go hiking alone.
On a recent visit to the scene of the crime on Mount Surak (2,100 feet), where the 60-year-old was stabbed, very few people were spotted. Even male hikers admitted they were feeling slightly anxious. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but the article calls for CCTV camera to be set up along popular hiking trails to protect hikers. It seems a bit overboard to me to put up CCTV cameras all over the country to protect against crimes. If people are so concerned for their safety than carry some pepper spray for personal protection.
