Category: crime & punishment

Remember the taxi driver that impeded an ambulance due to a minor accident where the patient ultimately later died at the hospital? Well he is now facing some serious charges:

A Seoul taxi driver who caused public outrage by blocking an ambulance transferring an emergency patient was formally arrested Friday.

The Seoul Eastern District Court granted an arrest warrant for the 31-year-old driver, citing the possibility that he may flee or destroy evidence. The court said his charges have been sufficiently explained. (……….)

The taxi driver, who was three weeks into the job, quit work two weeks after the accident. 

He was arrested on charges of assault and obstruction of business. Police are looking into whether it is possible for him to be charged with culpable homicide.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It seems the ruling Democratic Party in Korea is just hoping that the sexual misconduct allegations against Mayor Park Won-soon will just go away with his death:

On the funeral day of late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Monday, the main opposition party launched what is likely to become an all-out campaign to press for a probe into allegations that the deceased sexually harassed his former secretary.

The pressure by the United Future Party (UFP) highlights deepening political division over the death of the late Seoul mayor.

Park was found dead at a mountain in Seoul after apparently taking his own life on Thursday. He was facing a criminal complaint on sexual harassment, filed by his former secretary.

With Park’s death, the police were to close the case against him in his absence, but opposition lawmakers are increasing calls to get to the bottom of the allegations raised against the three-term mayor who was a lawyer defending human rights and women’s rights. (……)

“I believe the DP, having been more proactive than anyone in the past ‘#MeToo’ wave, would doubtlessly join the efforts to find the truth,” he said, calling for a probe into the case.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this is the end of the #metoo movement in South Korea? The movement pretty much ended in the U.S. once the #metoo people went after Joe Biden. Could the same thing happen in South Korea?

Here is some more blowback from the group of Americans acting like idiots this past weekend in Busan:

The American consul in Busan was called in by city authorities Wednesday over the firework mayhem caused by a group of Americans, including soldiers, on the Fourth of July.  
   
The Busan Metropolitan Government said in a statement Thursday that Woo Kyoung-ha, the city’s ambassador for international relations, summoned U.S. Consul Aaron Tiffany on the order of Acting Busan Mayor Byeon Sung-wan to express “strong regret” about the incident last Saturday and ask the U.S. Consulate that it doesn’t happen again.  
   
“Many Americans, including U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea, caused public anxiety on July 4 by shooting firecrackers in Haeundae and roaming around the streets without wearing face masks,” Woo was quoted by the city government as telling the consul.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Nearly a year later it still seems surreal that the Korean authorities have caught the Hwaseong Serial Killer after all these decades:

Police on Thursday closed the country’s longest-standing cold case involving a series of brutal rapes and murders that began more than three decades ago.

Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency concluded in a briefing that Lee Chun-jae killed 14 women, most of them rape-murder cases, and raped nine others, wrapping up its one-year investigation into him and his killing and raping spree that terrorized the country in the 1980s and 90s. 

Lee was found responsible for all of the 10 killings of women aged 14 to 71 in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, from 1986-1991 in what is known as the worst serial murder case in the country’s modern history, the police said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This update on the Lee Jae-yong legal saga makes me wonder what was done behind the scenes by Samsung to influence this panel’s decision?:

Samsung Group heir apparent Lee Jae-yong was granted a respite Friday in a legal battle over his alleged role in a controversial merger and fraudulent accounting, as an independent panel of experts concluded that prosecutors should not indict him. 

However, Samsung is still cautious as Lee’s legal battle is not over.

After hours of discussion, the panel, made up of civil activists, legal experts and others, concurred that the investigation into Lee unwarranted, giving a breather to Samsung and its de facto leader.

“We respect the decision from the committee,” Lee’s lawyers said in a release. “We thank the committee for giving Lee and Samsung a chance to focus on their business activities and overcome the current crisis.”

Early this month, a few days ahead of a court ruling over his detention, Lee, vice chairman at Samsung Electronics Co., requested the panel review whether prosecutors’ investigation is fair, seeking public support for the high-stake legal battle.

The independent panel was introduced two years ago to enhance neutrality and fairness of prosecutors’ probes into cases that are of great public interest. In a nutshell, the panel was created to rein in prosecutors’ powers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link. I have no idea if Lee is guilty of what he is accused of, but what I do know is that Korea is a rule by law nation instead of a rule of law nation. If powers that be want him guilty they can likely make it happen unless Lee gives them what they want.

The last person remaining that can delay the Korean left’s attempt to completely take over prosecuting powers is Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. The Moon administration is trying to rehabilitate the image of former corrupt Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook by appointing a judge with deep ties to to disgraced former Justice Minister Cho Kuk to look into it. ROK Heads may remember that Cho is good friends with Moon, so it is likely anyone with ties to him will provide investigation results favorable to Han Myeong-sook. Yoon has been delaying the investigation much to the ire of the Korean left:

President Moon Jae-in on Monday urged his justice minister and the prosecutor general to stop fighting each other and cooperate to complete reform of the prosecution.    

“Last week, the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution each launched task-force teams to protect human rights during criminal procedures,” Moon said during his opening remarks at a Blue House policy meeting that included both top officials. “Since the two powerful organs willingly started the initiatives, they must cooperate with each other and prepare a bold reform measure to make the people feel actual changes.”    

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl has been facing growing pressures from the ruling party to step down for his constant discord with Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae.

Moon stressed the importance of cooperation as the friction between Yoon and Choo reached a new peak last week amid disagreements over an ongoing investigation into the prosecutors’ handling of a 2010 corruption probe into former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook.    

On May 29, Yoon reassigned the case to the human rights monitoring office of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. The investigation is reviewing prosecutors’ suspected coercion of a witness to testify against Han, and was originally assigned to the more independent and powerful Inspection Headquarters of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.    

Led by Han Dong-soo, a former judge appointed by Choo’s predecessor Cho Kuk, the Inspection Headquarters has the power to request warrants, conduct raids and detain suspects, unlike the human rights monitoring office. Han Dong-soo has also argued that his team should be in charge of the internal probe.    

During a National Assembly hearing last week, Choo said Yoon’s assignment was a mistake. She then ordered the Inspection Headquarters to directly question key witnesses instead of waiting for the human rights office’s findings.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read much more at the link, but the Korean left wants Yoon to resign, but by law his term runs until July 2021.

The fraud accusations against left wing parliament member Yoon Mee-hyang, who used to run the Comfort Women charity, is only getting worse:

Then came the suicide of a Korean Council employee responsible for the operation of its shelter for the survivors.

The director of the shelter, known only by her surname Sohn, was found dead, pushing investigators to expand the scope of its probe.

Then came another layer of unexpected information. 

A granddaughter of Gil Won-ok, another survivor who had stayed at the shelter until recently, made a new accusation against Sohn, and Yoon, of money laundering. 

“The shelter’s director laundered money by taking an enormous amount of money from Grandma’s account and sending it to another account. I am sure people around her knew what she was doing,” the granddaughter wrote on the internet in reply to a news article on the director’s death. 

The prosecution summoned Gil’s son who stood partly by his daughter’s accusation. 

In a previous interview with a local news outlet, the son who Gil adopted demanded the shelter explain a big chunk of money withdrawn from her account three times ― in amounts of 4 million, 5 million and 20 million. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but with Sohn dead the only person that can answer what happened with the money is Yoon Mee-hyang. However, since Yoon is now a member of parliament she can ignore any summons from the prosecution for questioning. It appears she will be able to get away with all this with no outrage from the Korean left.

Here is the latest on the comfort woman fraud case involving left wing national assembly member Yoon Mee-hyang:

During the Friday press conference, Yoon read from a prepared statement before taking questions from the press, and rejected almost all accusations leveled against her. She also made it clear that she has no intention of giving up her seat. Yoon said she could not discuss all the “small details” because “a questioning by the prosecution is imminent,” referring to an ongoing criminal probe into the Korean Council.    

But while denying any misappropriation of funds, Yoon apologized for using her personal bank account to collect public donations, saying she had been “naïve to think it is okay as long as there was no problem about financial [transparency].”   

She said that after utilizing the donations, she transferred leftover funds to the Korean Council account, and added, “I have never used donations collected in my account for personal use.”  

Yoon said she has raised a total of 280 million won ($227,000) that was deposited into her personal bank account. She said she spent 230 million won of the total on projects related to comfort women victims that were outside the purview of the Korean Council, with the remainder used by the Korean Council. She added that she plans to disclose all of the details to the prosecution. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read much more at the link, but this may just be the tip of the iceberg involving this fraud. Yoon’s husband is noted convicted North Korean spy and fraudster himself.