Tag: crime

Over at the Korea Herald they have an article published that details some of South Korea’s most prolific serial killers.  Most I have heard of before, but there was actually a group of serial killers called the Jijon Clique that murdered five people and ate them in 1993 that I had not heard of before:

There was a crime group that systematically murdered people as well.

Kim Ki-hwan, 25 at the time, organized the group dubbed the “Jijon clique” in July, 1993. All in their 20s, they had hated the rich and decided to “act out.”

Their first target was a 23-year-old factory worker, who they raped and killed in 1994. They also set up a makeshift jail and incineration facility in a basement of the leader’s house in South Jeolla Province.

While it all started from their frustration against the rich and the economic polarization in society, their targeted victims were not always wealthy. One of the five people they killed was also one of their members, Song Bong-eun, who tried to secede from the group.

In September, 1994, they kidnapped four people and killed three of them in the most brutal ways. One victim, after being tortured, escaped to report the gang to the police. The six members were finally caught and were executed in November the same year.

In their testimony, one of the members revealed that they had practiced cannibalism, because they “gave up on being human.”  [Korea Herald]

You can read more about South Korea’s past serial killers at the link.  However, one serial killer not mentioned in the article that may also be its most famous is the Hwaseong Serial Killer that has never been caught.  The killings were featured in one of Korea’s most well known crime movies, “Memories of Murder ” which I highly recommend watching for those who haven’t seen it already.

It seems like amateur hour over at the NCIS over at Okinawa.  First of all their sting operation seems quite shady using pictures of a 22-year old woman posing as a 15-year old and then hiding evidence from the defense afterwards:

Bilecki had made the question of the missing video a key part of his client’s defense prior to it being found. Introducing the video mid-trial violated discovery rules, Bilecki said.

Kimball had been on temporary duty at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, when he met an undercover Navy agent online, who claimed to be 15, Bilecki said.

The two exchanged text messages for about 20 days, Bilecki said. The agent sent at least four videos and 18 photos to Kimball. However, Bilecki said that several photos showed the agent as a 22-year-old, which could have sent his client a mixed message.

Kimball arranged to meet the agent at the Olympic Mall on base and was arrested upon arrival.

The arrest was one of dozens in a multiyear NCIS operation aimed at catching personnel interested in sex with minors on Okinawa, where about half of all U.S. forces in Japan are based. Bilecki’s Hawaii-based firm has represented multiple defendants in such cases.

“I don’t have an issue if law enforcement wants to run an undercover operation where they are targeting servicemembers seeking underage sex online,” Bilecki, a former military attorney, said Friday. “The issue our law firm has is when they use … forms of inducement and entrapment to arrest otherwise innocent individuals who are not looking to meet minors.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

It seems the judge found middle ground here because the officer was convicted of the crime of sodomy, but he did not sentence him to jail since it was suspended for one year.  So basically the officer has to stay out of trouble for one year to avoid going to jail.  What I am wondering and the article does not clarify was if he was having a relationship with one of his subordinates?  Whether you are gay or straight this is something that should not be going on in the military:

South Korea’s military court sentenced an Army captain to six months in prison, suspended for a year, Wednesday on charges of having sex with a fellow male soldier, a civic group said.

The captain, whose identity was withheld, was convicted for violating the Military Criminal Act, according to the Center for Military Human Rights Korea. Under the law, a soldier who commits “sodomy” or “other disgraceful conduct” can face up to two years in prison.

“It is a bizarre clause that only has a perpetrator, without a victim,” the group said in a press release, adding the captain had sexual intercourse at a private place under consent.

The defendant, however, will not appeal the ruling, according to an official at the group.

“The captain was fulfilling his military duty and was originally scheduled to be discharged in April,” the official said. “If he appeals the ruling he will have to stay in the military without knowing when the legal battle will be finished.”

The captain collapsed after the ruling was delivered and was transferred to a nearby hospital but is known to have left the hospital in stable condition, according to the official.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It just seems that this is a pretty bold theft to try and pull off with little reward when they were trying to sell the HMMWVs for $10,000 a piece:

A U.S. soldier and six South Korean civilians have been accused of being part of a ring that stole three Humvees from a U.S. base in South Korea and tried to sell them, police said Thursday.

The soldier, identified only as a 47-year-old Korean-American man, allegedly conspired with the others to arrange for three Humvees to be stolen from the base in June and September of last year, police said.

The thefts were carried out by camouflaging the vehicles to appear as unused items, said Kim Dong Hwan, chief detective of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s international crime investigation unit.

“The soldier insists that he was not trying to steal the vehicles with the rest of the guys,” Kim told Stars and Stripes. “The Koreans kept denying what they did at first. But they’ve been saying lately that they attempted to sell the Humvees.”

Kim said it was the first time police have uncovered a ring trafficking in stolen Humvees in South Korea.

The suspects — who also included a civilian contractor working on the base, three junk dealers, a film-prop maker and an intermediary — have been booked without detention.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Another creepy ajushi in the Seoul diplomatic corps is in trouble:

A South Korean diplomat has been convicted of taking indecent photos of women.

Seoul Western District Court fined the lawyer-turned-diplomat, 38, identified only as Kim, 70 million won and ordered him to take a 40-hour education program on sexual crimes.

He was apprehended on Aug. 5 last year for taking photos up the skirt of a woman on a bus. Police later confirmed that he had used his smartphone to take photos up women’s skirts 16 times between April 2015 and August last year. One photo was taken in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lobby in Seoul.  [Korea Times]

What an idiot:

An Australian, whose identity is unknown, has been arrested for defacing a subway car, according to Suseo Police Station Sunday.

According to police, the man, 22, and his girlfriend arrived on Mar. 27, and stayed at a hotel near Hongik University.

The man broke into Gangnam Subway Depot and drew graffiti on a subway car on Apr. 1, after being told wrongly he could do this.

He left for Japan the next day, but was arrested on Sunday after stopping at Incheon International Airport for a flight back to Australia.  [Korea Times]

I wonder if this guy is friends with the group of Australians that defaced these Seoul subway cars two years ago?

You would think the police in Seoul would have better things to do instead of arresting this guy for taking a banner down off of his home:

Police have booked an American man, 64, who works as a part-time English instructor at Hongik University, for allegedly vandalizing a presidential campaign poster.

Under Korean election law, unlawfully removing or vandalizing a political campaign poster can lead to a two-year jail term or a fine of 4 million won ($ 3,500).

Mapo Police Station said on Monday the man allegedly tried to remove a poster from the side of his house on Apr. 21. His neighbors tried to stop him but he repeatedly said “my home” and continued to dismantle the poster before being arrested.

It is unclear whether the neighbors explained clearly to the suspect that removing an election poster is against the law. The man is known to have told police he did not know it was unlawful. [Korea Times]

There is probably more to this story, but on the surface it seems if someone puts a banner on your house you should be able to take it down if you don’t want it there.

Here is something you don’t see happen very often in South Korea, a bank robbery:

Police said Saturday it has arrested a suspect in an armed bank robbery that took place in the country’s southeastern provincial county two days earlier.

The Gyeongsan Police Station in North Gyeongsang Province said it caught a 43-year-old man, identified only by his last name Kim, at a parking lot of a large accommodation facility in Danyang, North Chungcheong Province, at around 6:47 p.m.

Police had suspected the robber may be a foreigner as one of the bank employees claimed he had a poor Korean accent, but it turned out that he was a native.

Kim is suspected of robbing a branch of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, also known as Nonghyup, in a county in Gyeongsan early Thursday, threatening the employees at gunpoint and fleeing the scene on a bicycle with some 15.6 million won (US$13,700) in cash, all of which took him only four minutes.

During the heist, he apparently fired one shot from what the police believe to be a homemade gun, but no one was hurt as it was aimed at the wall. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but as expected the man was tracked down by piecing together camera footage from neighborhood cc cameras.

I would not want to be the commander for the unit these idiots serve in that kept an underage prostitute in the on-post dormitories and fed her dining facility food:

Two enlisted airmen assigned to Dover Air Force Base are being held on federal charges they sexually abused a runaway teen girl.

The men, identified as Airman 1st Class Dalian Washington, 25, of Philadelphia, and Airman 1st Class Akeem Beazer, 21, of Pompano Beach, Fla., were arrested March 31, said Kimberlynn Reeves, spokeswoman for acting US Attorney David Weiss.

Both men are charged with sexual abuse of a minor, while Washington also faces a single count of sex trafficking of a child.

According to the criminal complaint against both men, the case came to light in March when the girl told a social worker that beginning when she was 15 years old and continuing after her 16th birthday, she had stayed at Dover AFB and had sexual relations with Air Force personnel while there.

This admission prompted an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Delaware State Police.

The DSP detective was familiar with the girl, who allegedly had a troubled home life and often ran away from home.  [Dover Post]

You can read the rest at the link, but this girl was being pimped out of the DMV of all places.

I wonder how long she has been getting away with this?:

Police have booked a 20-year-old woman for allegedly stealing two gold bracelets and hiding them in her buttocks at a jeweler’s shop in central South Korea earlier this month, they said Wednesday.

The Heungdeok Police Station in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, said the woman, along with her 21-year-old friend, visited the shop on April 1 and browsed the bracelets on display. She repeatedly put her hand into her pants while the other woman was talking to an employee over the purchase of a ring.

According to the police, the shopowner found that two bracelets, worth 980,000 won (about US$856), were gone. The woman was later spotted picking them up in CCTV footage.

She denied the allegations and demanded that the shop call the police to determine whether she stole them, saying that she wore a pair of leggings and had nowhere to hide them.

Two female police officers arrived at the shop and conducted a strip search in a bathroom near the shop after getting the suspect’s consent, eventually obtaining her confession that she had hidden them in her buttocks.  [Yonhap]