You can add this as another one of the Only in Korea stories. What a bizarre and horrible murder of this young child:
A woman of Philippine nationality has been detained for allegedly beating to death the three-year-old son of her acquaintance from the United States Forces in Korea (USFK).
The Pyeongtaek Police said, Monday, that they had detained the 30-year-old suspect and are investigating the case.
According to the police, she and the USFK service member knew one another, and the latter had asked the woman to briefly mind his two sons ― seven and three years old.
She is accused of beating the younger boy to death in her room, provided by a bar where she was employed, at around 7:30 a.m., Sunday. The older child was not harmed.
The bar owner discovered the victim around 8 a.m. and reported it to the police.
The police then began to search for the suspect, but she had been taken into custody at a precinct station nearby as police had received reports of the woman roaming the streets naked.
You can read more at the link, but the woman when she was detained was not only naked, but incoherent. However, despite being incoherent supposedly confessed to the crime. If I had to guess I would say she was likely under the influence of some drug that probably influenced beating the 3-year old child to death. Some advice to all USFK service members, do not leave your kids at the bar to be watched by a Filipina juicy girl.
By the way, any bets what the father was doing while leaving his kids at the bar to be watched by the juicy girl?
This is a lot of meth that was interdicted in Busan:
South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they have busted the nation’s largest-ever drug trafficking attempt with an arrest of a man in his 30s in the southern port city of Busan.
The Busan District Prosecutors Office said it has arrested and indicted a 34-year-old man on charges of smuggling over 400 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico.
The prosecution said the volume of methamphetamine seized from the suspect totaled 404.23 kg, the largest amount in the nation’s history of drug smuggling.
The seized drugs, which can be administered to 13.5 million people at the same time, is worth 1.3 trillion won ($1.12 billion) in terms of retail price.
I would be surprised if South Korea brings back the death penalty, but I have no sympathy for these two criminals if they do:
Banners are hung in Daejeon, Wednesday, to urge a court to hand down a death penalty for a man who killed his 20-month-old stepdaughter in June. Yonhap
A series of atrocious crimes of late are once again sparking debate over capital punishment.
South Korea is classified as “abolitionist in practice,” which means that the government retains the death penalty but has not actually executed a criminal in the past 10 years or longer. The last execution here took place Dec. 31, 1997, when 23 convicted of murder were hanged.
However, the issue has been brought to the fore again following the homicide of a 20-month-old toddler by her stepfather in June and the murder of two women last month by a sex offender who removed his electronic monitoring anklet while on parole.
The 29-year-old stepfather, identified as Yang, allegedly covered the baby girl with blankets because she would not stop crying and punched and stomped her to death. Furthermore, the parents hid the baby’s body in an ice box in their bathroom.
The crime has drawn public rage especially because Yang allegedly raped and sexually assaulted the toddler, according to autopsy results and the mother’s testimony.
In the other case, a man surnamed Kang, who had 14 previous convictions, was released from prison in May after serving 15 years for sexual assault, but last Friday and Sunday he killed two women, one of whom was murdered after he destroyed his monitoring anklet.
Police on Monday arrested two teenage brothers for allegedly stabbing their own grandmother to death.
According to Daegu Seobu Police, an 18-year-old boy stabbed his 77-year-old grandmother with a kitchen knife around 12:50 a.m. on Monday at their house in Daegu.
Stab wounds were found all over her body, including on her face, shoulder, arm and hip.
When the police asked for his motive, the boy said that he was angered by his grandmother’s nagging.
Just another example of the breakdown of civil society in major U.S. cities:
Park, 27, recalled the incident in a new interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, which tackled her experiences as a child in North Korea and as a defector in the U.S. She said it occurred during lootings across the city last summer. Park was out with her baby and a nanny when three Black women allegedly robbed her near Saks Fifth Avenue on Michigan Avenue.
The suspects tried to flee but she managed to grab the woman who took her wallet. Park held onto the woman and attempted to call the police. At this point, the woman allegedly started accusing her of racism and punching her in the chest. “You’re a racist! The color of my skin doesn’t make me a thief,” she recalled the woman as saying. The situation became more difficult for Park as bystanders — whom she identified as white people — gathered around the scene and allegedly prevented her from phoning law enforcement. She said they also let the suspects go.
The corporal that was stabbed said he was too drunk to remember much from the stabbing. Fortunately for him the police have video evidence that shows the getaway car with a good look at the license plate:
This screenshot from a Channel A News broadcast shows closed-circuit TV footage of suspects fleeing the scene after a U.S. soldier was stabbed at a bar near Camp Humphreys, South Korea, April 17, 2021.
A soldier assigned to this Army installation south of Seoul was in stable condition Wednesday after being stabbed in the stomach while drinking at an off-base bar over the weekend, according to local police. (……)
Closed-circuit TV at the bar captured four suspects, two Koreans and two foreigners, fleeing the scene in two cars, nearly colliding with traffic as they made a quick getaway, according to the detective.
This soldier’s commander must have gave himself a facepalm after getting the phone call about this:
Police say two mask-wearing perpetrators robbed this currency exchange store across from Camp Foster, Okinawa, Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Two people who live and work at Kadena Air Base are suspected of making off with nearly $65,000 in the armed robbery of a currency exchange shop on Okinawa.
The business, which isn’t far from Camp Foster’s front gate, was robbed by two mask-wearing perpetrators about 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to an Okinawa Police spokesman who spoke on a customary condition of anonymity.
One or both of the suspects went behind the shop’s counter while brandishing a knife-like object, threatened an employee and demanded money, the spokesman said. They ran out with $64,700 in Japanese and U.S. currency. No one was injured.
Here is an update on the bizarre video sex case in South Korea:
Cho Ju-bin, the prime suspect in a massive Telegram blackmailing case, speaks to reporters at Jongno Police Station in central Seoul on March 25, 2020. (Yonhap)
A man suspected of blackmailing dozens of victims, including minors, into performing violent sex acts and selling the videos in mobile chat rooms was handed over to the prosecution on Wednesday for further investigation.
At least 74 people, including 16 underage girls, are known to have been exploited in the case, widely known as the “Nth room case,” in which prime suspect Cho Ju-bin allegedly lured victims into taking photos and later coerced them into performing more gruesome sex acts.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency sent Cho’s case to the prosecution on charges including violation of the act on the protection of children and youth against sex offenses.
This is a weird case because the victims were allegedly being extorted digitally to do sex acts with no threats of physical force:
Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok reads out a statement by President Moon Jae-in on a digital sex abuse case on March 23, 2020. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in called Monday for a thorough investigation into shocking sex crimes against women, including underage girls, in which group chat rooms of the Telegram messenger service were used.
He described the acts of the offenders in the so-called Nth room case as “cruel” behavior that destroyed the lives of victims and said he “feels sympathetic” to the “justifiable” public fury over it.
At least 74 women, including 16 minors, were sexually abused and exploited for several months, as they were virtually enslaved with threats of spreading photos of their naked bodies, according to police. They were forced to photograph or film themselves doing sexual acts, even grotesque ones. Those were shared with a host of viewers in the chat rooms. The number of members, who paid money for the materials, reportedly reaches 260,000.
The Stars & Stripes has an article about the curfew ending and here is a quote from the Provost Marshall on Osan Airbase I found interesting:
Service members and locals walk through an entertainment district just outside Osan Air Base, South Korea, on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019.
“We continue to be disappointed with the actions of a few individuals, mainly soldiers going out and getting into fights at night,” provost marshal Col. John Fivian told Stars and Stripes on Monday at USFK headquarters on Camp Humphreys.
He said problems were more noticeable in South Korea because troops who get into trouble are usually turned over to their commands; in the U.S., they would be dealt with by local authorities.
I am sure the Provost understands this, but if servicemembers are arrested off base it is more nuanced than stating they are just handed over to their commands. Here is what the SOFA says:
The US retained custody until the completion of all judicial proceedings, including appeals prior to 2001. Under the revised SOFA, the ROK may now receive custody upon indictment if it requests in any one of twelve categories of serious cases. Such cases include murder, rape, kidnapping, arson, drug trafficking or manufacturing, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and cases of assaults, drunk driving or fleeing the scene of an accident that result in death. In very serious cases of murder or rape, if the Korean police arrest a SOFA accused in the act, in hot pursuit, or before he or she returns to military control, they may retain custody.
For minor crimes, yes servicemembers are usually handed over back to their commands, but for major crimes the Korean authorities can keep them in custody.
