Category: crime & punishment

Korean Women with Short Hair Show Support for Beaten Convenience Store Worker

This was a horrible crime that happened to the woman just trying to do her job at a convenience store:

This image captured from X, also formerly known as Twitter, shows an ongoing campaign in which women with short hair share their photos, which began after a female part-timer in her 20s, who was working at a convenience store, was assaulted by a man in his 20s simply because of her short hair. Captured from X

Should women with short hair be labeled as feminists? And do feminists harm men?

Such questions, which sound a bit peculiar, have been raised in Korea, once again, following a recent incident, in which a female part-timer in her 20s, who was working at a convenience store, was assaulted by a man in his 20s simply because of her short hair. 

The incident immediately led to an online campaign encouraging women with short hair to share their photos under #women_shortcut_campaign.

According to police, the assailant was caught assaulting the part-timer at the convenience store in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, on Saturday. The man also assaulted a male customer in his 50s who was trying to stop the attack.

At the time of the attack, the attacker said to the victim, “You must be a feminist as you have short hair. The feminist should get punished,” according to the police.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Korean Woman Subjected to Racist Remarks By Two Australian Teenagers Before Being Attacked

Via a reader tip comes this news of an assault of a Korean woman in Sydney by two Australian teenage women:

Disturbing footage shows the moment a teenager brutally attacked a young Korean woman in Sydney in the early hours of Sunday morning. 

According to Instagram account ‘degeneratehunting’, which uploaded the footage, the Korean woman and her friend were walking back to their hotel when they were approached by two teenagers near Town Hall in the city’s CBD. 

The women, who are from Melbourne and aged 23 and 32, “suddenly passed a group of young teenagers slurring racist remarks and threats towards them”. 

“The teenagers then turned from their direction of travel and began following the two Korean girls, bringing one of them to start recording for self defence,” the post read.

Footage shows the Korean woman in a tussle with one of the teenagers on the street before she is dragged to the floor and struck multiple times. 

The woman manages to get to her feet briefly before she is dragged back down again and kicked and continuously struck in her head.

News.com.au

You can see the video at the link, but both of the women who assaulted the Korean tourist have been identified and arrested by police.

Ex-Fiance of South Korean Olympic Medalist Detained for Fraud and Hit with Travel Ban

Remember this story of a Korean Olympic medaling fencer that was conned by a transgender fiancé? Here fiance has now been detained by police for fraud:

Olympic fencing silver medalist Nam Hyun-hee (Yonhap)

Olympic fencing silver medalist Nam Hyun-hee (Yonhap)

Police detained the former fiance of Olympic fencing medalist Nam Hyun-hee for investigation on charges of fraud and attempted fraud, officials said Tuesday.

Nam, the silver medalist in women’s foil at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, broke up with her 15-year-younger fiance Jeon Cheong-jo last week, days after revelations that Jeon was actually a woman with a history of fraud convictions.

Yonhap

The website Oddity Central has a good write up about this case and Jeon Cheong-jo’s long criminal history and the lies she used to get Nam to marry her:

However this Korea Herald article speculates that Nam might be an accomplice of Jeon’s frauds that he committed against people while engaged to Nam. What is really bizarre is that Jeon was committing frauds before meeting Nam where he was switching his gender identity depending on who he was defrauding. What a weird story.

You can read more at the link.

Elderly Man Stabs Two Korean Police Officers in Front of the Defense Ministry Compound

I would not be surprised that this old guy probably has a mental illness of some kind:

A 77-year-old man passing by the defense ministry compound Tuesday took out a knife and stabbed two police officers guarding the compound, which also houses the presidential office. 

The man, identified by his family name Park, yelled in front of the compound and attacked the officers at 1:20 p.m. as they tried to subdue his shouting. One of the officers was stabbed in the abdomen and the other in the left arm, and both were taken to a hospital.

The man was arrested at the scene.

The ministry compound houses the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Korea Considering Having People Accused of Stalking Wear GPS Bracelets

The Korea Herald has a long article about violence against women in Korea. In the article there is an idea on making people accused of stalking wear police issued GPS bracelets. This would allow the person they are stalking to know where that person is. This is an interesting idea, but I would like to see the safeguards on how abuse of making people wear GPS bracelets would be prevented:

Still images from CCTV footage show a man violently attacking a woman in Busan in May 2022. (Courtesy of JTBC)

Still images from CCTV footage show a man violently attacking a woman in Busan in May 2022. (Courtesy of JTBC)

In a bid to take a more systemic approach, South Korea is working to determine what behaviors constitute an abusive pattern in offenders, and how to adequately train judges, court staff, police officers and other support organizations to identify the risk factors and protections needed.

There is also room for improvement when it comes to the efficacy of temporary restraining orders in deterring offenders from making contact with victims. There have been repeated calls, including from the unnamed victim of the roundhouse kick incident to allow police to use GPS tracking devices on both gender-based crime and stalking offenders and their victims. Under the current system, only victims are able to use the devices to alert police in an emergency, and these devices cannot detect the location of the offenders automatically.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Five People from the Same Family Found Dead in Three Seperate Locations in Seoul

This is very weird especially since the police are focusing on suicide as the cause for at least four of the deaths:

A family of five has been found dead in three different locations in and around Seoul, and police are investigating connections into their deaths, police said Saturday. 

Police received a report at 7:29 a.m. of a 40-year-old woman having jumped off an apartment building in Songpa in eastern Seoul, officials said. 

She was sent to a hospital in cardiac arrest but later pronounced dead.

While police were checking the woman’s whereabouts in the lead-up to her death, they discovered her husband, mother- and sister-in-law dead in a residence in the same district. 

Police then found the couple’s teenage daughter dead at a hotel in Gimpo, just west of Seoul. 

Police said a note was found at one of the scenes that indicated a conflict over money. 

Police said they believe four of them, excluding the daughter, took their own lives, and an autopsy will be carried out on her to figure out the exact cause of death.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Korean Supreme Court Confirms 20 Year Sentence for Spin Kick Rapist

It is good to see how stringent the rape sentences have been getting in South Korea because it was not like this in the past:

In this file photo, a man, known as the "spin kick assailant" for his brutal attacks on a female stranger, leaves a court in the southeastern port city of Busan on June 12, 2023. (Yonhap)

In this file photo, a man, known as the “spin kick assailant” for his brutal attacks on a female stranger, leaves a court in the southeastern port city of Busan on June 12, 2023. (Yonhap)

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 20-year prison sentence for the so-called spin kick assailant in the southeastern port city of Busan, who caused social outrage last year due to his brutal attacks on a female stranger for the purpose of rape.

The defendant, whose identity has been withheld, is accused of following the victim, to whom he had no personal connection, for 10 minutes all the way to her apartment’s elevator on May 22, 2022, knocking her out with a roundhouse kick to the back of the head and then continually assaulting her until she passed out.

He was given a 12-year prison term on charges of attempted murder by a district court in October last year, but the Busan High Court raised the sentence to 20 years in June after prosecutors changed his charge to attempted rape murder after detecting his DNA in her jeans.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

24 Korean High School Teachers Arrested for Selling Exam Questions to Private Education Companies

In South Korea getting these exam questoins would be a huge advantage to the test takers:

Vice Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon announces the results of a crackdown on illegal activities by teachers in a news conference in the central city of Sejong on Sept. 19, 2023. (Yonhap)

Vice Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon announces the results of a crackdown on illegal activities by teachers in a news conference in the central city of Sejong on Sept. 19, 2023. (Yonhap)

Twenty-four high school teachers have been caught selling exam questions to private academies before or after serving as test makers for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and mock CSAT exams in violation of the current laws, the education ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry said it will file criminal complaints against four of the teachers on charges of obstruction of business and ask for an investigation into 22 of them on suspicion of violating anti-graft laws. Two of them will face both criminal complaints and investigation, it added.

The four teachers facing criminal complaints are accused of serving as CSAT and mock CSAT test makers after hiding the fact that they sold practice exam questions to private education companies, it said.

On the other hand, the 22 teachers facing an investigation have been caught selling exam questions to private companies after participating in CSAT and mock CSAT test-making, it said. All CSAT test makers are obliged by law to keep all test-related information confidential.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

17 USFK Servicemembers Arrested After Breaking Up of Drug Smuggling Ring

You would think these idiots would do a Google search to see how many former USFK servicemembers have been caught smuggling drugs through the mail to realize it is not worth it:

This photo provided by police shows a raid on the home of a USFK soldier suspected of being involved in drug trafficking. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

This photo provided by police shows a raid on the home of a USFK soldier suspected of being involved in drug trafficking. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

A United States Forces Korea (USFK) service member has been arrested on charges of smuggling drugs from the U.S. via military mail and using, selling or distributing them in South Korea, police said Wednesday.

The 24-year-old service member is accused of illegally importing 350 ml of synthetic cannabis through USFK mail between February last year and May this year, and smoking, selling or distributing them to USFK soldiers and others together with two civilian women, according to the Gyeonggi Pyeongtaek Police Station.

The service member assigned to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 61 kilometers south of Seoul, allegedly used plastic containers for drug smuggling, taking advantage of the fact that it is not easy to distinguish between liquid synthetic cannabis and liquid electronic cigarettes. 

The smuggled drugs have been mostly sold to U.S. soldiers stationed in Pyeongtaek and Dongducheon, 41 km north of Seoul, through the two women and five others, the police station said.

It said the two women — a South Korean and a Filipino — have been arrested on drug trafficking charges and transferred to the prosecution for indictment. In addition, 17 other U.S. soldiers have been apprehended and sent to the prosecution without detention on suspicion of being involved in the purchases and sales of the banned substance.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.