Category: crime & punishment

Another crazy guy with a mental illness has launched a stabbing attack in South Korea:

A local court issued a warrant Saturday to arrest a man suspected of stabbing a teacher at a high school multiple times.

The Daejeon District Court granted a warrant to formally arrest the suspect in his late 20s on charges of attempted murder, citing the risk of flight.

The man stabbed the teacher, including in the face and chest, at a high school in Daejeon, 139 kilometers south of Seoul on Friday. He was quoted as telling police that he was a student of the teacher in the past, but his claim has yet be verified.

The teacher, 49, underwent urgent surgery after the stabbing, but remains in critical condition.

Police said the suspect was diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression in recent years, but did not receive any treatment.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but with all the media attention these attacks are getting, authorities are worried about copycat attacks now by other mentally ill people.

In the U.S. this crazy guy with a reported mental illness could have gone to Walmart and bought a gun. At least in South Korea the mentally ill can’t purchase a gun to create far larger carnage than what this guy caused with a knife:

A man rammed a car onto a sidewalk Thursday in the South Korean city of Seongnam, then stepped out of the vehicle and began stabbing people at a shopping mall, leaving at least 14 people wounded. 

Just hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday called for “ultra-strong” law enforcement measures in response to that attack, police found themselves chasing the suspect in another stabbing incident at a high school in Daejeon city.

Cho Byeong-tae, an official at the Daejeon metropolitan police department, said the attack at Songchon High School left at least one teacher hurt. He did not identify the victim or provide details about the victim’s health. (…..)

Authorities arrested a 22-year-old suspect at the scene and were questioning him. Police did not identify the man or offer any immediate information about a potential motive.

According to Park Gyeong-won, an official at Gyeonggi’s Bundang district police station, the suspect during police interviews talked incoherently and said he was being stalked by an unspecified source. The suspect’s family told police he had a history of mental illness.

Associated Press via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.

Korea has got to make sure they don’t allow drugs to become a major social problem like it has become in many western nations where it drives crime and homelessness:

Korea’s customs agency said Tuesday it has captured a record amount of drugs in the first half of this year, enough to be used by more than 5 million people.

The amount of illegal drugs seized at borders jumped 39 percent on-year to 329 kilograms during the January-June period, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service (KCS).

It is the largest ever figure for any first six months of a year, and the confiscated amount this year can be used by 5.05 million people at the same time.

But the number of smuggling attempts fell 12 percent on-year to 325 cases, as the average volume involved in a single case has grown, the agency added.

The growth in drug smuggling came as Korea tightened its border control, coupled with the growing demand for narcotics here and the subsequent rising prices, the KCS said.

Of the 325 cases, 45.8 percent, or 149 cases, were carried out through international mail, followed by express cargo with 92 cases and air travelers with 81.

By type, methamphetamine accounted for 42.5 percent of the drugs seized, followed by hemp with 25.2 percent and ketamine with 7.3 percent.

By origin, the United States and Thailand accounted for 24.3 percent of the volume, or 80 kg, each, followed by Laos with 11.85 percent and Vietnam with 9.7 percent. China accounted for 5.8 percent, or 19 kg, the data showed. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how many of the Americans caught smuggling are the idiots trying to mail themselves marijuana thinking they won’t get caught?

I almost feel bad for Cho Kuk, his life crashed after trying to carry out former President Moon’s orders when he was his Justice Minister:

 Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, currently under trial on academic fraud charges connected to his daughter and son, said Monday he respects his children’s decision to renounce controversial academic degrees.

Cho, a former Seoul National University professor who served as a justice minister under the previous Moon Jae-in administration, made the remark as he appeared for a hearing at the Seoul High Court in southern Seoul. 

An appeal trial is currently under way after Cho was given a two-year prison term on charges connected to his children’s admission to a medical school and a graduate school. 

Last week, Cho Min, the ex-minister’s daughter, dropped her lawsuits filed to reverse decisions by Korea University and Pusan National University’s Graduate School of Medicine to revoke her admissions, saying she will “go back to the starting point and start again with a clean slate.”

The ex-minister’s son also announced through a lawyer a decision to relinquish his master’s degree in political science from Yonsei University Graduate School last week.

“As a father, my heart ached but I decided to respect their decisions to begin anew from the starting point,” the ex-minister said. 

“Since a guilty sentence was finalized for professor Chung Kyung-sim at the Supreme Court, she herself and the family humbly accepted it and are reflecting on themselves,” Cho said, referring to his wife who is currently serving a four-year prison sentence on academic fraud and other charges.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if Cho Kuk had never accepted the Justice Minister position and had not tried to limit the power of prosecutors none of the academic fraud stuff would have come to light. It was used to take him out and it worked.

Here is another infant murder case in Korea this time involving a father and grandmother:

 A father was put under emergency detention Thursday on charges of killing a newborn and abandoning the body in collusion with the baby’s maternal grandmother, police said, the latest in a string of child abuse cases involving unregistered babies.

The man in his 40s was first taken into custody in Yongin, south of Seoul, in the wee hours of Thursday on charges of murder and corpse abandonment before the grandmother in her 60s was detained later in the day on the same charges, police said.

The pair allegedly killed the newborn not long after he was born in March 2015 and abandoned his body on a nearby hill. How the baby was killed was not known, but a direct means could have been used as murder charges were brought against them.

They reportedly committed the crime while the baby’s mother was recovering after labor, and the husband allegedly lied to his wife, saying the baby was going to die soon as he was born sick.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This sentence seems fair to me considering the deliveryman was accosted by the drunken man and he did not mean to cause his death:

The Busan District Court on Tuesday handed down a suspended sentence to a deliveryman for causing the death of a resident in an apartment complex after a physical altercation over the use of an elevator.

The court imposed a two-year jail sentence suspended for three years with 80 hours of community service.

The deliveryman faced charges of manslaughter after he pushed the resident with his shoulder, causing the resident to fall head-first to the floor and suffer a traumatic brain hemorrhage.

The altercation took place in January when the resident, who was intoxicated at the time, kicked the delivery cart and verbally abused the deliveryman for occupying the elevator for approximately six minutes.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This is something you don’t see very often in Seoul:

Surveillance footage showing two elderly women allegedly stealing goods and electrical cords from moving boxes has set off a police investigation and online outrage.

The footage, taken on Friday in Seoul, shows the two women rummanging through boxes temporarily placed outside a building during a move, while moving company employees were busy with other boxes.

According to the online post from the victim, the boxes were temporarily placed outside a building in the process of moving to another building 10 minutes away.

The video footage shows the duo working together, one keeping lookout while the other stole the goods.

A neighbor who saw the women alerted one of the movers, and when the mover attempted to restrain them, they dropped the toilet paper rolls and paper cups they were carrying and ran away while the mover was on the phone talking to the owner.

The items stolen include wire cords, a tablet PC and camping equipment amounting to one million won ($769).

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This horrible and the couple said they killed the newborn because they were struggling financially:

A couple was arrested Sunday on charges of strangling their newborn baby to death and abandoning his body in the southern city of Geoje, police said, the latest in a series of child abuse cases involving unregistered babies.

A woman in her 30s and her partner in his 20s were charged with strangling the baby to death and burying his body on a mountain after the child died in their home in Geoje, 331 kilometers south of Seoul, five days after he was born in September last year. 

The two had initially claimed they found the baby dead on the morning of Sept. 9 and buried his body on a mountain the following day, but later confessed that they killed him and abandoned the body in a stream, officials said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Hopefully this elderly man is now receiving the assistance he needs so he does not have to shoplift again:

Donations are pouring in for a financially struggling Korean War veteran who was caught stealing food. 

According to police and officials at the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs on Monday, more than 20 people have so far contacted them to ask about ways to help the man who is now in his late 80s. Some offered cash, while others sent food and other daily necessities.

They decided to lend a helping hand and joined in following the news that the veteran was being investigated for allegedly stealing several bottles of sesame oil, canned fish and other food products worth 83,000 won ($64) between April and May.

After being apprehended, he immediately apologized and said he did so because he did not have enough money to buy food, police explained.

After serving in the war, the veteran worked as a fisherman for 30 years. Reportedly, he has two children he has lost contact with, and his wife died some years ago.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.