Korean Woman Cleared of Excessive Self Defense After Biting Off Tongue of Would Be Rapist
It is good to see at least some common sense prevailed in this instance of self defense in South Korea:
A South Korean woman has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing after her alleged rapist accused her of “excessive self-defence” for biting off part of his tongue.
Police in the southern port city of Busan said they did not find any legal grounds to charge the woman in her 20s who bit off approximately three centimetres of the man’s tongue, reported the Korea Times.
The man, in his 30s, had allegedly found the woman in a drunken state on the street and offered to take her to her hotel, but he is accused of driving instead to a deserted spot and then sexually assaulting her.
He is said to have reported his injury to the police station but officers gathered to evidence from surveillance cameras and the dashboard camera of his car and recommended he be indicted for illegal confinement and sexual assault.
“Although her actions exceeded normal limits of self defence, based on discussions with external experts and lawyers, we came to the conclusion that it can be justified according to Article 21 of the Criminal Law Act,” the Times quoted an officer as saying.
The Telegraph
You can read more at the link, but this is something soldiers have to consistently reminded of, you have little expectation to self defense in South Korea. For example a soldier was assaulted and had a metal pole smashed across his face by a group of Koreans and he had to pay $9,000 in restitution to the people that attacked him because he defended himself.
Other examples of the negative consequences of defending yourself can be seen with the 2004 Shinchon Stabbing Incident or the 1995 Seoul Subway Brawl. In these cases the GIs were punished for defending themselves while the Koreans that started the fights got away with no legal consequences. This is why I have always said it is best to swallow your pride and walk away from confrontations with Koreans.
>This is why I have always said it is best to swallow your pride and walk away from confrontations with Koreans.
If you are able to just walk away like that and swallow your pride, then you’re not in much physical danger. So if you’re not in physical danger, you have no right to “defend yourself” which has become code word for “retaliation”. Americans will say this is stupid why you can’t punch someone in the face and make him brain dead in retaliation for name callings. But if you compare the level of violence in two societies in South Korea and America, which society is far more violent with more crimes? No brainer.
Surprised they didn’t fine and send her to jail for assaulting an innocent drunk man.