Category: crime & punishment

This is an absolutely horrible crime:

A man in Jinju, southeastern South Korea, set his apartment aflame on Wednesday and attacked fleeing residents with a knife, killing five of them and injuring 13, police said.
The arson and murder suspect, identified only as a 42-year-old man, set fire to his apartment building in Jinju, about 435 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at around 4:29 a.m. before randomly stabbing other residents coming out of their houses to evacuate, police said.

Five residents, including a 12-year-old, were stabbed to death in the apartment stairways, and 13 others were injured, with three of them in critical condition, police said.
The suspect was detained on the scene at about 4:50 a.m. after a confrontation with police.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but condolences to all the victims’ families.

President Moon’s friend is released from jail after 77 days despite his involvement in rigging online opinion to influence a Presidential election while a journalist received a 2 year jail sentence for reporting facts and was not released after such a short time:

South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo was released Wednesday after 77 days of detention over his role in a massive rigging of online opinions.
The Seoul High Court approved Kim’s request for bail but attached a condition under which he should only stay in his residence in Changwon, 400 kilometers south of Seoul.
Kim, known as a confidant of President Moon Jae-in, was sentenced to two years in prison in January for colluding with a power blogger to carry out an illicit cyber operation to sway public opinion in favor of Moon ahead of the 2017 presidential election.
“(I) will prove once and for all that truth will come around no matter how far it is thrown away,” he told reporters. “(I) will reveal the truth through an appeals trial.”
Kim, 51, earlier requested the bail on the grounds that the provincial government suffered a setback in doing its work due to his absence. For the 200 million-won (US$176,025) bail, the court ordered him to pay half of the amount in cash.
Kim received the two-year jail term for collusion with the power blogger, better known by his nickname, Druking, to artificially jack up the number of likes of Internet comments on sensitive political news to benefit the ruling Democratic Party (DP), the then main opposition party, and its presidential candidate Moon ahead of the 2017 elections.
Moon won the snap election in May, replacing former President Park Geun-hye, who was ousted from office in March 2017 over a corruption scandal.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the excuse that the provincial government could not work effectively because he is in jail is one of the lamest excuses I have heard yet. Would any other criminal be let out of prison early because their work place suffered a setback with that person’s absence?

There has been another horrible murder incident on Okinawa that will probably get the anti-US protesters riled up again:

A U.S. sailor fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself on Okinawa, Japanese officials said.
The two were found dead Saturday morning inside a six-story apartment building in the Kuwae district of Chatan, according to an Okinawa Prefectural Police spokesman.
The woman’s child was present when the incident occurred and called a relative, who then called police at 7:26 a.m., the spokesman said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Since they are left wing activists I would be surprised if anything significant happens to them for forcibly occupying the office of a prominent Korean opposition lawmaker:

Police on Saturday requested arrest warrants for two members of a progressive collegiate association for trespassing.

The two had occupied Liberty Korea Party Floor Leader Na Kyung-won’s office as part of a protest, Yeongdeungpo Police Station said Sunday. They are reportedly college students. 

They were among 22 members of the group who had occupied Rep. Na’s office at around 10 a.m. Friday to stage a protest demanding Na and Liberty Korea Party chief Hwang Kyo-ahn step down from their positions.

The members are calling for Na and Hwang to resign based on claims that Na made an inappropriate remark on Korean history and Hwang tried to cover up Kim Hak-eui’s sex bribery scandal and hindered attempts to find the truth regarding the Sewol Ferry tragedy.

During the 40-minute protest, the members chanted and carried placards. They also formed a scrummage by lying down on the ground when the National Assembly’s security staff tried to stop them.

The members were dragged outside of the building some 50 minutes after the protest began. Police took the members to the police station after they continued their protest in front of the building.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the police should have arrested all 22 of them for forcibly occupying the office and making a disturbance.

Things just went from bad to worse for television personality Robert Holley:

Police said Wednesday they began investigating naturalized television personality Robert Holley last year after an alleged drug user claimed he was Holley’s gay lover and the two had used methamphetamine together.

After being placed under immediate arrest on Monday at a parking lot in western Seoul for illegally purchasing methamphetamine online and using it, Holley – also known by his Korean name Ha Il – attended a warrant hearing for his arrest in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Wednesday. 

“To my family, friends and the public who have protected me for all this time, I want to say I apologize,” Holley told reporters as he entered the courthouse.

The court rejected the detention warrant Wednesday evening, setting Holley free. It said it was hard to believe Holley would destroy evidece.

According to the Anyang Dongan Police Precinct, which investigated Holley’s case, this was the third time the law enforcement authorities have probed him for drug use, after inconclusive attempts in July 2017 and March 2018. 

In last year’s attempt, according to Anyang police, a 34 year-old man arrested for drug use, identified only by his surname Cho, claimed he was Holley’s gay lover and that they had taken meth together before engaging in sexual intercourse. Police said they confirmed that Cho had visited Holley’s home multiple times through CCTV footage, and had other evidence for Cho’s claims. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is a strange story of a Mormon missionary turned international lawyer and Korean citizen arrested for using drugs in South Korea:

Mark Peterson, professor emeritus at Brigham Young University in Utah, claimed Tuesday that popular TV personality Robert Holley, known by the Korean name Ha Il, who was arrested for allegedly using methamphetamine, was the victim of “dirty” Korean cops. 

In a posting on historian Robert Neff’s Facebook, Peterson, a Korea Times columnist, wrote: “Rob’s a friend of mine. The police have been dogging him for about a year because another entertainer who is guilty has accused Rob as a way of lightening his own sentence. 

“Rob refutes every accusation, and the police will not give it up. Several months ago they gave him a clean bill of health, but they will not give up. Rob doesn’t do drugs ― he doesn’t even drink. This isn’t a drug story; it’s a dirty cop story.” 

Peterson spoke similarly to Yonhap News over the phone. 

He was quoted as saying that police didn’t have any evidence and forced Holley, 58, to make a confession. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Holley supposedly tested positive for drugs after doing a urinalysis and they have evidence of him depositing money to a drug dealers account. This seems like pretty damning evidence to me.

The Indonesian woman accused of murdering Kim Jong-nam was released last month and it appears next month the Vietnamese woman involved in the murder will be let go as well:

A Vietnamese woman who is the only suspect in custody for the killing of the North Korean leader’s brother pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in a Malaysian court on Monday and her lawyer said she could be freed as early as next month.
Doan Thi Huong had faced a murder charge, which carried the death penalty if she was convicted, in the slaying of Kim Jong Nam, who died after being accosted by two women in a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal. Huong nodded as a translator read the new charge to her: voluntarily causing injury with a dangerous weapon, VX nerve agent.
High Court judge Azmi Ariffin sentenced Huong to three years and four months from the day she was arrested on Feb. 15, 2017. Huong’s lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said his client is expected to be freed by the first week of May, after a one-third reduction in her sentence for good behavior.
“I am happy,” Huong, 30, told reporters as she left the courtroom, adding she thought it was a fair outcome.
While handing out a jail term short of the maximum 10 years the new charge carried, the judge told Huong she was “very, very lucky” and he wished her “all the best.” Vietnamese officials in the courtroom cheered when the decision was announced.

Associated Press

I wonder what the verdict on this would have been if it was a Malaysian murdered like this instead of the son of a foreign despot?

It looks like the Korean left’s prosecution of a members of the prior Park Geun-hye government for running a “cultural blacklist” is coming back to haunt them as they have done an arguably worse abuse of power in the Environment Ministry:

The prosecution is expanding its investigation into the environment ministry’s alleged “blacklist” to the presidential office as it is considering questioning a presidential secretary in charge of personnel affairs.

Since the main opposition Liberty Korea Party raised the allegation last December, prosecutors have confirmed some cases pertaining to a political purge. The ministry allegedly compelled 24 senior officials at its eight affiliated organizations appointed by the previous administration to step down so the posts could be filled with people loyal to the current government.

On Monday, the Seoul Eastern District Court held a hearing to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for former Minister Kim Eun-kyung on charges of abuse of power after banning her from traveling abroad in February. Kim led the ministry from July 2017 to November 2018.

According to the prosecution, the environment ministry investigated some of the officials who were refusing to step down to uncover individual wrongdoings or business-related mistakes. Following such pressure, a standing auditor at the Korea Environment Corp. (KEC), surnamed Kim, quit in March last year.

Now, believing it is improbable that the ministry did not create the blacklist by itself, the prosecution has been looking into whether Cheong Wa Dae pulled the strings from behind the scenes.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Stories like this make me want to do a complete check of a hotel room in Korea for these spy cameras:

Two men who installed miniature spy cameras in 30 motels and live-streamed footage of around 1,600 guests were arrested, police announced Wednesday. 

Since August last year, a 50-year-old man surnamed Park and a 48-year-old man surnamed Kim installed spy cameras in 42 rooms in 30 motels located in 10 cities throughout the country.

The diameter of the camera lenses was smaller than 1 millimeter (0.04 inches), and the two men installed them in parts of TVs, power sockets and even in the hangers for hair dryers that hang on the wall in bathrooms.

Each camera had a wireless function that allowed the men to upload online videos taken on the camera to various websites.

The lives of around 1,600 guests in these motel rooms were streamed live on a pornography website that Kim ran on an overseas server.

Park and Kim made users pay for the videos on the website, and they made some 7 million won in total ($6,197) from 97 members.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but it seems like this is a small payoff considering the expense and work that went into installing the cameras.

I have been reading about this K-Pop sex scandal over the past week and can’t help but wonder why anyone is surprised this was going on?:

Police booked a serving police lieutenant as a suspect and are questioning an elite senior officer as a key witness in the mushrooming sex, drugs, celebrities and police protection scandal surrounding the Burning Sun nightclub.

Following the questioning of an elite police officer on Friday, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Sunday that it booked a lieutenant at the Gangnam Police Precinct as a suspect for criminal negligence related to illegal activities at the club in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, which was partly owned by K-pop megastar Seungri. 

The club was located in the precinct where the lieutenant, only identified by his surname Kim, worked. This is the first time that a current police officer has been identified as a suspect in the scandal. 

Kim was accused of criminal negligence in his handling of a complaint against Burning Sun in July last year. A complaint was filed that an underage guest entered the club and drank alcohol, but Kim closed the case, saying there was not enough evidence. Kim also allegedly advised the prosecution that there was no case to pursue.

It appears that the police are speeding up their investigation, as the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office was assigned to investigate a separate but related case concerning several illicit activities discussed in KakaoTalk chat rooms by Seungri, his business partner and other celebrities. The suspected crimes include sexual assault, taking and sharing sex videos without the consent of women in them, prostitution, using drugs, bribing police and tax evasion.

“The scandal seems to be going on for a while, and it is uncomfortable that the police keep being mentioned,” a police official told the JoongAng Ilbo. “We want to quickly and sternly investigate the urgent issues.” 

One of the urgent issues concerning the police is the suspicion that an elite member of the police, who once served at the Moon Jae-in Blue House, was involved in the crimes. The senior superintendent of the National Police Agency, only identified by his surname Yun, was suspected of having maintained a close relationship with Seungri, whose real name is Lee Seung-hyun, and his business partner, Yu In-seok. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.