Category: crime & 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.

Deep fake sex images are now the biggest story in South Korea and it is problem that is going to be highly difficult stop due to the spread of AI technology that makes this possible:

 Police will carry out an intensive crackdown on deepfake sex images as a recent series of such crimes stoked fears that any woman could fall victim, officials said Tuesday.

During the seven-month crackdown set to begin Wednesday, police will aggressively hunt down those who produce and spread such images, especially those of children and teens, the National Police Agency said.

According to the police agency, 297 cases of deepfake sexual exploitation crimes were reported nationwide from January and July. Among 178 people charged, 73.6 percent, or 113 individuals, were known to be teenagers. 

Political parties and rights groups also called for stern punishment and an active investigation.

“Fear is growing, with nearly 220,000 members estimated to have participated in these deepfake porn chat rooms on Telegram,” said Son Sol, a co-chair of the minor opposition Progressive Party’s task force on the issue.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the AI deep fakes have also been linked to the ROK Army with a chatroom that specializes in passing images of female Soldiers as well. It makes me wonder how long before this becomes a problem in the U.S. military as well?