Category: crime & punishment

If this guy is a career criminal why do they keep letting him out? Age should not play into this if he keeps committing crimes:

The Supreme Court has upheld the 1 1/2-year prison sentence for Cho Se-hyeong, an 85-year-old notorious burglar, convicted of stealing again just a month after being released from prison, court officials said Saturday. 

In January 2022, Cho was arrested for stealing precious items worth 27.5 million won (US$21,020) from a luxury country home in Yongin, 40 kilometers south of Seoul.

He was initially sentenced to two years in prison by a lower court. An appellate court later reduced the sentence to 1 1/2 years considering his age, health and circumstances. (…..)

Cho gained notoriety in the 1970s and 80s as the “Great Thief” for his tendency to rob only wealthy and powerful individuals, and use some of the stolen money for charitable purposes. 

The burglar was imprisoned multiple times in the 1970s, and in 1982, he received a 15-year prison sentence for stealing from the homes of wealthy people and high-ranking officials.

After his release, Cho claimed to have turned his life around and was involved in missionary work and served as an adviser to a security company. 

However, he was caught burglarizing an empty house in Tokyo in 2001 and imprisoned five more times later in and near Seoul — for theft in 2005, 2013, 2015 and 2019, and for arranging the dealings of stolen goods in 2010.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that quite possibly the most infamous criminal in USFK history has passed away at age 50 in West Virginia:

Kenneth Lee “Kennet” Markle, III, 50, of Keyser, WV, died Tuesday, February 14, 2023 in Keyser.

Born on June 7, 1972 in Wurzburg, Germany, he was a son of Kenneth L. Markle, Jr. and Helen M. “Mickey” (Hickey) Markle, of Keyser. He was preceded in death by an infant brother, Jarrod Markle and his grandparents, Kenneth L. Markle, Sr., Wanda P. Markle and John and Edith Hickey.

Kennet was a 1990 graduate of Keyser High School and was employed as a project manager in the cellular communications industry. He was an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

Tribute Archive

For those that don’t know who Kenneth Markle is, I recommend reading my below prior posting about him:

GI Flashbacks: The 1992 Private Kenneth Markle Murder Case

I also recommend reading the below prior posting where Markle’s alleged ex-girlfriends describe what he is like in the comments section:

Convicted USFK Murderer Speaks Out

I have actually met Markle before when he was still being held in the foreigner prison down in Cheonan. He was the person that used to pick up the mail from people that would go and check up on the prisoners there. He was actually very polite when I interacted with him. However, since his release from Korean prison in 2006 he went on to continue a life of crime in West Virginia:

Two Mineral County men were arrested Monday when they were served arrest warrants by Keyser Police at two locations.

Kenneth Lee Markle, 44, of Keyser, was charged with 24 counts of nighttime burglary and 74 counts of unauthorized use of a debit card, police said.

Markle was arrested at a North Water Street residence late Monday and granted pre-trial release after posting $15,000 bond, police said. 

Cumberland Times-News

Markle actually contacted me a few years after he got out claiming his innocence and that if I read the court transcripts I would understand he was not a murderer. I offered to post the complete transcripts on the ROK Drop and he never sent them to me. His side of the story is that he hit the victim in the head with a coke bottle after she attacked him and was alive when left the room. He claims someone else killed her and violated her body. He told himself that bogus story for so long he probably actually believed it after a while.

Judging by this collage of mugshots that ROK Drop commenter Chickenhead has put together, I would not be surprised that besides being a thief that Markle was a meth-head as well:

This officially closes the chapter on Kenneth Markle and hopefully those impacted by his crimes get some solace that he will not be able to victimize anyone else ever again.

Add this to the list of things you can’t do in South Korea, sell a K-Pop star’s lost hat:

Prosecutors have summarily indicted a former foreign ministry employee on charges of attempting to sell BTS member Jungkook‘s lost hat online for 10 million won (US$7,950), legal sources said Tuesday.

The former government employee, whose identity has been withheld, allegedly shared a photo of the bucket hat on an online flea market, claiming the K-pop superstar had left it at the ministry building in Seoul when he visited to apply for a passport.

The seller further said he had acquired the ownership of the hat since no one came to claim it for six months after it was reported as lost property. Following controversies, he deleted the post and surrendered voluntarily to police.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office investigating the case has summarily indicted him, seeking a punishment of fines for embezzlement charges.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This missing child and murder case is totally bizarre and it is only a matter of time before this is turned into a movie:

A woman was given a suspended prison term in a retrial on Thursday in connection with the mysterious disappearance and deaths of two 3-year-old girls.

Reversing an earlier prison term of eight years, the appellate division of the Daegu District Court sentenced the 50-year-old woman, surnamed Seok, to two years in prison, suspended for three years.

The court acquitted Seok of charges that she had switched her 3-year-old daughter with her granddaughter of the same age years ago in the southeastern city of Gumi. 

The case first surfaced in 2021 when the mummified remains of a 3-year-old girl was found at the former home of Seok’s daughter, surnamed Kim. The girl is suspected to have died from starvation up to six months earlier.

However, it was only later found through DNA tests that Kim is not the mother of the girl, but her older sister. The child’s supposed grandmother was in fact the biological mother.

Based on the DNA results, prosecutors added child abduction and switching charges against Seok by alleging that the two women gave birth around the same time and that their babies were switched at birth. 

Prosecutors alleged that Seok had unloaded her newborn onto her eldest daughter to raise with her then husband. Kim had raised her younger sister by thinking that she was her daughter.

Seok, however, said she had not given birth to another child, insisting the DNA results are false. The whereabouts of the missing child remain unclear.

In previous rulings, the district and appeals courts had acknowledged the biological relationship between Seok and the dead girl, convicting her of switching the babies. 

The Supreme Court, however, struck down the verdict, saying the DNA test results cannot stand as evidence for Seok’s alleged switching of the babies. 

On Thursday, the appellate court sided with the top court, acquitting Seok of switching babies and only convicting her of attempting to dispose of the body.

Yonhap

What I don’t get is why Seok would switch the babies around the time of birth to just likely kill her granddaughter after the switch? If she was going to kill a baby why didn’t she just get an abortion? Also how did the daughter Kim not notice she had a different baby? The daughter was sentenced to 20 years in jail for killing the baby when she reached age 3 that uncovered this whole sorted affair.

This is pretty atrocious police work and makes you wonder if even today how well these criminals with ankle monitors are being tracked:

A Seoul court on Wednesday ordered the state to pay more than 200 million won (US$162,500) in compensation to family members of a woman killed after an attempted rape by a man wearing an ankle monitor for sexual crimes.

In 2012, the woman in her 30s was murdered by Seo Jin-hwan, who broke into her house in Seoul’s Gwangjin district in an attempt to rape her. It was only later found out by police that Seo had committed a similar crime just 13 days earlier and that he was wearing an electronic ankle monitor at the time.

The family then filed a compensation suit against the state, claiming Seo’s crime could have been prevented if police had properly managed DNA evidence found from the previous crime scene and if his ankle bracelet had been properly monitored.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It has always been pay to play in North Korea, so Lee had to have offered something to visit and it appears the offer was $3 million according to this guy:

An arrested underwear tycoon allegedly said he delivered US$8 million to North Korea in 2019 to help promote Gyeonggi Province’s smart farm project and then Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s visit to the North, informed officials said Tuesday.

Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group, who was nabbed in Thailand in early January after months on the run, reportedly made the controversial remarks during questioning by prosecutors in Suwon, 34 kilometers south of Seoul.

The Suwon District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kim on Jan. 20 on multiple charges, including embezzlement, bribery and the illegal transfer of cash to North Korea.

Previously, Kim told prosecutors that he only handed a total of over $5 million to North Korea on two occasions in 2019 to pursue economic cooperation rights involving the North.

As the prosecution presented other related documents, however, the underwear tycoon reportedly disclosed an additional remittance of $3 million to Pyongyang and the reasons for the cash payment, the officials said.

Kim allegedly said that $5 million was delivered in connection with Gyeonggi Province’s smart farm project in North Korea and the additional $3 million was intended to facilitate Lee’s visit to the North.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if Lee Jae-myung had won the presidency does anyone think any of this would have come out?

I just don’t understand how idiots like this guy think they are going to get away with doing dumb things like this:

This screenshot from an All Nippon News report shows security camera footage from a car dealer in Iwakuni, Japan, Dec. 3, 2022. (ANN)

A U.S. Marine has met with and apologized to the owner of a vehicle that was stolen and then crashed last month outside this base near Hiroshima, according to a local media report. 

The Marine, who has not been identified by local authorities or the Marine Corps, spent nearly two hours with the victim on Thursday, the local Chugoku newspaper reported the next day. In addition to apologizing, he promised to pay for any damages, the report said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I can’t stand people who leave graffiti everywhere. It is great to see the Koreans were able to get him extradited. Too bad they don’t do canings in Korea for graffiti like they do in Singapore:

A suibway car with graffiti. A 27 year-old American and a 28 year-old Italian is suspected of painting the cars last year. [iNCHEON TRANSIT CORPORATION]

The Incheon District Court on Friday started reviewing an arrest warrant request for a 27-year old American accused of breaking into subway garages and spray-painting graffiti on trains last year.    
   
The unnamed American was extradited to Korea on Wednesday from Romania. An Interpol red notice was issued and on Nov. 12, and the American was arrested by local police in Romania.    
   
The American covered his face with a baseball hat, glasses and a face mask in his court appearance Friday.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This could be bad news for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung:

A fugitive underwear tycoon nabbed in Thailand last week in connection with the prosecution’s ongoing investigation into opposition leader Lee Jae-myung’s corruption allegations returned home Tuesday.

Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group, arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, around 8:20 a.m. via an Asiana Airlines flight from Bangkok.

He was apprehended by Thai police at a golf club near Bangkok a week ago, roughly eight months after he fled the country amid several high-profile corruption investigations.

Kim has been long sought after by prosecutors as a key suspect in a number of high-profile corruption investigations, including alleged payment of Lee’s attorney expenses by proxy, suspected embezzlement of company funds and alleged transfer of cash to North Korea.

The 55-year-old Kim, handcuffed and flanked by prosecution investigators, was asked if he had any relationship with Lee, the chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), by reporters at the airport but flatly said he did not know him at all.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This must have been terrifying to find in her boyfriend’s closet:

A man in his 30s was arrested Sunday for murdering and hiding the body of a taxi driver in his 60s in a closet at his home in Paju, Gyeonggi.  
   
“There is a dead body in my boyfriend’s closet at an apartment in Paju,” a caller reported to the 112 emergency hotline around 11:22 a.m. on Sunday.  
   
Earlier that day, the taxi driver’s son called the police at around 3:30 a.m. saying that his father “has been missing for six days” and that he “talked to him on KakaoTalk but it feels like talking to a different person.” 

The police went to the apartment in Paju after the call was made and confirmed that the dead body was the taxi driver.  
   
According to the Ilsan Dongbu Police Precinct, the man was involved in a car crash with the taxi driver while drunk driving at around 11 p.m. on Dec. 20. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.