Category: crime & punishment

I think for Moon Da-hye, illegal parking and running a red light is probably the least of her legal troubles at this point:

A  vehicle reportedly driven by Moon Da-hye appears to enter an intersection in Yongsan District, central Seoul. Moon disregarded traffic signals while allegedly under the influence of alcohol on Saturday, according to camera footage. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter, accused of drunk driving in Itaewon, Yongsan District, is also suspected of illegally parking her car for hours in the area, according to media reports on Monday.

Moon Da-hye, daughter of the former president, is accused of parking her Hyundai Casper — a small SUV — in front of a construction site in Itaewon, close to a busy street and several restaurants.  
  
According to the Yongsan District Office, the area is marked with a yellow dotted line, which prohibits drivers from parking in the space for more than five minutes. If she had been caught, she would have faced a fine of 40,000 won ($30). 
  
Moon is suspected of parking her car at 6:57 p.m. Friday before heading to a nearby restaurant. The car remained parked for about seven hours until she returned at around 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, allegedly inebriated. 
  
She is also accused of driving through a red light and making an improper left turn at an intersection. She then collided with a taxi while changing lanes in front of the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon at 2:51 a.m., according to Yongsan police. 
  
Moon has been booked on charges of drunk driving in violation of the Road Traffic Act. Her blood alcohol level was reportedly 0.14 percent, significantly above the legal limit of 0.08 percent, which is the threshold for revoking a driver’s license.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

More legal problems for the Moon family:

Lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party criticized former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter Sunday after she was booked the previous night for driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol.

Rep. Kim Jang-kyom said in a Facebook post that Moon Da-hye should have listened to what her father said during his time in office that drunk driving amounts to an act of murder. 

“The one who lived together with her at Cheong Wa Dae said drunk driving amounts to murder,” Kim said, referring to the former presidential compound. “Even though her father said a lot of nonsense, she should listen to what she should listen to.” (……..)

According to police, Moon Da-hye’s car collided with a taxi while she was changing lanes in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul’s Yongsan district at 2:51 a.m., causing minor injuries to the taxi driver. Her blood alcohol concentration was reportedly measured at 0.14 percent, well above the 0.08 percent threshold for license revocation.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Moon Da-hye is in more legal trouble than just this DUI. When Moon was elected President Moon Da-hye and her now ex-husband moved to Thailand for an executive position with T’Way Airlines. A position he had no experience or qualifications to attain. Coincidentally the owner of T’Way was later appointed to a high ranking government position. Prosecutors are investigating former President Moon for bribery to determine if his son-in-law was given the executive job in return for T’Way’s owner getting the government position.

Another day and yet another taxi cab related incident involving a 2ID Soldier:

A U.S. service member stationed in South Korea pleaded guilty to assaulting a taxi driver in Seoul and was fined roughly $2,250 last month. The unidentified service member admitted to entering the taxi in the Gangnam district of the capital city at 4:11 a.m. Feb. 17, according to an Aug. 14 verdict sheet from the Seoul Central District Court.

South Korean law enforcement agencies and courts typically do not identify defendants except in extreme cases, such as homicide. After getting into the back seat of the taxi, the 52-year-old driver told the service member that another passenger had already reserved the taxi, according to the court document.

The service member then exited the taxi and walked toward the driver, at which point the driver also left the taxi. The service member then pushed the driver’s chest, choked him and punched him in the face several times, according to the court record.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Soldier also paid a settlement to the taxi driver which was smart. Paying the settlement usually leads to much lesser punishment.

Usually I do not have much sympathy with taxi drivers in Korea when they try and rip off Soldiers. But in this case a $50 fair for a ride from Seoul to Dongducheon is actually a pretty fair price:

Police plan to recommend assault charges against a U.S. soldier accused of throwing a 73-year-old taxi driver to the ground after complaining his fare was too high. On Sept. 1, a 21-year-old enlisted soldier from Camp Casey hailed a taxi with three other people in Seoul’s Map district, a Dongducheon police officer told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday.

South Korean officials customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity and typically do not identify individuals suspected of crimes until they are formally charged. The taxi driver dropped the soldier’s companions off before heading to the final destination near Casey in Dongducheon, the officer said.

The soldier slept during the ride and was woken up by the driver upon arrival. After being asked for the $50 fare, the soldier complained it was too high and threw the driver to the ground by his neck, the officer said. The driver immediately reported the incident to police and said he suffered an orbital fracture and scratches to his face.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Basically what this ruling is telling everyone is that if you are a service member in USFK and are charged with child porn, just defect to North Korea and the charges will be dropped if you make it back:

Pvt. Travis King on Friday was sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty to deserting to North Korea. But he walked out of the courtroom a free man. “With time already served and credit for good behavior, Travis is now free and will return home,” said Frank Rosenblatt, an attorney for the soldier. Military Judge Lt. Col. Rick Mathew also sentenced King to reduction in rank to E-1 and a dishonorable discharge in a court-martial that lasted most of the day.

During the trial, King, 24, sat in his dress uniform between his attorneys and said it was his decision on July 18, 2023, to join a tour of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and then bolt into North Korea. The soldier did so because he was “dissatisfied with work,” he told the judge. King also pleaded guilty to three counts of disobeying an officer on Oct. 7, 2023, and another charge of assaulting a noncommissioned officer the following day.

He pleaded not guilty to additional charges related to child sexual abuse material and making false statements. The judge dismissed the remaining charges.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but King played the predictable race card saying everyone in the Army is racist. I have seen people in the Army get more jail time for doing far less than what King did and yet prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that let King walk free after less than a year in jail.

A business deal that went bad led to an attempted murder:

The Seoul High Court said recently it upheld a six-year prison term for a 67-year-old North Korean defector for the attempted murder of another defector over a faulty investment opportunity.

A defendant was found guilty of attempted murder, after he stabbed the 70-year-old victim nine times and assaulted him with his fist at 11:40 p.m. on Nov. 14. The court turned down his claim of not intending to murder the victim, pointing out that he called the police after the crime and said he had “just committed murder today.”

The victim recovered after six weeks of medical treatment.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I wonder how much of this questioning is motivated by how the opposition party has been attacking President Yoon’s wife over the handbag from hell?:

The wife of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was questioned by prosecutors Thursday over allegations of corporate credit card misuse while Lee served as Gyeonggi governor.

Kim Hye-kyung, accompanied by a lawyer, appeared at the Suwon District Prosecutors Office, south of Seoul, to face questioning, which lasted for about two hours.

The investigation centers on allegations that the couple used a corporate credit card from the Gyeonggi provincial government for personal purposes in 2018 and 2019, while Lee served as governor, by having a subordinate buy food items with the card. 

In July, prosecutors notified Lee, currently chair of the main opposition Democratic Party, and Kim to appear for questioning as part of the investigation. 

Lee’s side responded that he would face questioning after his party’s national convention on July 18, but he has yet to appear before prosecutors.

Thursday’s questioning was expected to last into the night, but ended in two hours after Kim exercised her right to remain silent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is some more information about the ROK intelligence agent that was leaking the identity of undercover agents in China:

A military intelligence official indicted for allegedly leaking the identities of undercover South Korean agents has admitted to working for a Chinese operative since 2017, military prosecutors said Wednesday. 
  
The 49-year-old official, who worked for the Defense Intelligence Command before his suspension, initially denied leaking military secrets but eventually told investigators that he was recruited by Chinese intelligence in 2017 during a visit to Yanji, the capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, to meet his contacts. 
  
According to military prosecutors, the official claimed he was detained by Chinese officials at the Yanji airport and offered a chance to work for a Chinese intelligence agent in exchange for his family’s safety. 
  
Military prosecutors indicted the official on Tuesday on charges of bribery, aiding the enemy and violating the Military Secrets Protection Act by leaking classified information. 
  
While the official said he began selling military secrets in 2017, prosecutors said they were able to confirm he had received payments since 2019 and leaked classified information since June 2022, two years before counterintelligence officials caught wind of his suspicious activities.

Total payments to the suspect that have been tracked thus far by South Korean counterintelligence amount to 160 million won ($120,000). 
  
Prosecutors said the suspect gathered secrets by taking photos and screenshots of information on computer screens at the Defense Intelligence Command’s headquarters in Seoul, which he then uploaded to a Chinese cloud server at home.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I have to wonder how real the supposed threats to his family were? I would not be surprised if he was looking for money from the start. Considering he only got paid $120,000 he sold out his country for a paltry sum.