Category: crime & punishment

Just think former President Park was impeached and jailed for far less and the police can’t even get an arrest warrant for this guy that cheated the Seongnam government out of $92 million:

A Seoul court on Thursday rejected an arrest warrant for a key suspect at the center of a snowballing regional development corruption scandal, dealing a blow to the investigation into the case that has become the hottest topic in South Korean politics.

The Seoul Central District Court denied the prosecution’s request to arrest Kim Man-bae, owner of an asset management firm, Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, on bribery and other charges, citing an insufficient explanation of the need to detain him.

Kim, a former journalist, has been under investigation in connection with how his previously little-known firm reaped massive profits from a 2015 project to develop the Daejang-dong district in the city of Seongnam, south of Seoul, into apartment complexes.

The former journalist allegedly colluded with Yoo Dong-gyu, then acting president of Seongnam Development Corp. in charge of the project, to engineer a contract between the two sides to remove a clause limiting the amount of profits that the firm could take from the project.

Prosecutors alleged that Kim caused more than 110 billion won (US$92 million) of losses to the Seongnam city government by removing the clause. He was also accused of giving Yoo 500 million won as part of a deal to pay him a total of 70 billion won.

Yoo is considered a close aide to Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the ruling party’s presidential nominee, and Lee served as Seongnam mayor from 2010-2018. Kim also interviewed Lee seven months before setting up his asset firm.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Has anyone ever gone outside to smoke a cigarette and been attacked by a ninja? Well that is what happened to a Special Operations soldier while training in California:

Nonlethal rounds failed to stop a sword-wielding man dressed as a ninja who authorities say injured two special operations soldiers, then brandished his blade at sheriff’s deputies last month at a California airport, according to authorities. 

Deputies from a Kern County Sheriff’s Office substation in Ridgecrest, Calif., responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon Sept. 18 at Inyokern Airport, the office said in a statement posted Friday on Twitter. The airport is located in the Mojave Desert, near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. 

When deputies arrived on the scene, they found some 26 special operations soldiers training at the airport “hunkered down” in the hangar after an attack by a man dressed as a ninja, Ridgecrest Police Department records show. Stars and Stripes first reported details of the incident, which was revealed in a military report leaked on social media, earlier this week.

Officers discovered the suspect had assaulted one victim with a sword and hit another victim after tossing a rock through a hangar window, the sheriff’s office said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the wannabe ninja assassin was arrested after the attacks and appears to be a nutjob.

I had no idea that plant poaching was even a thing:

The leader of an international plant poaching ring has pleaded guilty to digging up thousands of succulents from remote state parks in California to ship to Asia to sell for giant profits, federal prosecutors said.

Byungsu Kim, 46, of South Korea, was accused with two co-conspirators of flying to Los Angeles in 2018, and then driving to small state parks in northern California where they illegally dug up numerous Dudleya plants.

The plants are prized in Asia, but take years to grow in nurseries, so those growing in the wild along the California coast have become a major target for poachers, authorities say. Black market Dudleyas can sell for up to $1,000 each, wildlife experts say.

Market Watch

You can add this as another one of the Only in Korea stories. What a bizarre and horrible murder of this young child:

A woman of Philippine nationality has been detained for allegedly beating to death the three-year-old son of her acquaintance from the United States Forces in Korea (USFK). 

The Pyeongtaek Police said, Monday, that they had detained the 30-year-old suspect and are investigating the case.

According to the police, she and the USFK service member knew one another, and the latter had asked the woman to briefly mind his two sons ― seven and three years old.

She is accused of beating the younger boy to death in her room, provided by a bar where she was employed, at around 7:30 a.m., Sunday. The older child was not harmed.

The bar owner discovered the victim around 8 a.m. and reported it to the police.

The police then began to search for the suspect, but she had been taken into custody at a precinct station nearby as police had received reports of the woman roaming the streets naked.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but the woman when she was detained was not only naked, but incoherent. However, despite being incoherent supposedly confessed to the crime. If I had to guess I would say she was likely under the influence of some drug that probably influenced beating the 3-year old child to death. Some advice to all USFK service members, do not leave your kids at the bar to be watched by a Filipina juicy girl.

By the way, any bets what the father was doing while leaving his kids at the bar to be watched by the juicy girl?

This is a lot of meth that was interdicted in Busan:

South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they have busted the nation’s largest-ever drug trafficking attempt with an arrest of a man in his 30s in the southern port city of Busan.

The Busan District Prosecutors Office said it has arrested and indicted a 34-year-old man on charges of smuggling over 400 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico.

The prosecution said the volume of methamphetamine seized from the suspect totaled 404.23 kg, the largest amount in the nation’s history of drug smuggling.

The seized drugs, which can be administered to 13.5 million people at the same time, is worth 1.3 trillion won ($1.12 billion) in terms of retail price.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I would be surprised if South Korea brings back the death penalty, but I have no sympathy for these two criminals if they do:

A series of atrocious crimes of late are once again sparking debate over capital punishment. 

South Korea is classified as “abolitionist in practice,” which means that the government retains the death penalty but has not actually executed a criminal in the past 10 years or longer. The last execution here took place Dec. 31, 1997, when 23 convicted of murder were hanged. 

However, the issue has been brought to the fore again following the homicide of a 20-month-old toddler by her stepfather in June and the murder of two women last month by a sex offender who removed his electronic monitoring anklet while on parole. 

The 29-year-old stepfather, identified as Yang, allegedly covered the baby girl with blankets because she would not stop crying and punched and stomped her to death. Furthermore, the parents hid the baby’s body in an ice box in their bathroom.

The crime has drawn public rage especially because Yang allegedly raped and sexually assaulted the toddler, according to autopsy results and the mother’s testimony. 

In the other case, a man surnamed Kang, who had 14 previous convictions, was released from prison in May after serving 15 years for sexual assault, but last Friday and Sunday he killed two women, one of whom was murdered after he destroyed his monitoring anklet.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible story:

Police on Monday arrested two teenage brothers for allegedly stabbing their own grandmother to death.  
   
According to Daegu Seobu Police, an 18-year-old boy stabbed his 77-year-old grandmother with a kitchen knife around 12:50 a.m. on Monday at their house in Daegu.  
   
Stab wounds were found all over her body, including on her face, shoulder, arm and hip.  
   
When the police asked for his motive, the boy said that he was angered by his grandmother’s nagging. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the murderers 16 year old brother later admitted to helping kill his grandmother as well.

Its surprising this guy just turned himself in after committing these crimes:

A man, who had cut off his monitoring ankle bracelet and took off, turned himself in to police and said he killed two women, police said.

Songpa Police Station arrested the 56-year-old man, surnamed Kang, on Sunday for ripping off the electronic device and allegedly murdering two — one before he ran off and the other while he was on the run.

The man turned himself over to police at around 8 a.m. Sunday, reportedly saying he feared being arrested soon for his crimes. Police had been chasing him since Friday, when he ran away.

The police found the victims’ bodies at the man’s house and in his car. The two women, in their 40s and 50s, respectively, are said to have known the man.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.