Tag: Korea

Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this Wall Street Journal article from a Korean lawyer that gives you all the information you need to know in regards to South Korea’s highly criticized defamation laws:

A separate category of criminal defamation is criminal insult. This provides punishment up to one year in prison or 2 million won in fines. Unlike criminal defamation, criminal insult involves no statement of fact, but simply generalized epithets. To establish criminal insult, the insult needs to be: (1) made publicly (i.e. the same “publicity” requirement as criminal defamation); (2) directed to a specific individual, and; (3) objectively damaging to the social reputation of the insulted individual.

Further, even an insult that would in fact damage the reputation does not rise to a criminal level if, in the context of overall situation in which the insult was made, the statement is not outside of the bounds of social norms. For example, the Supreme Court in 2008 held that a golf caddy who complained about her boss on the Internet by calling him “pitiable” and “pathetic,” was not guilty of criminal insult. Among other reasons, the ruling was given because the level of her insult was quite light and it was made in the context of complaining about workplace conditions—both of which were within the social norms.

All in all, the full contour of Korea’s criminal defamation laws shows that it to be less outrageous than one may think. The law is hardly a license to punish every nick and cut caused by everyday speech. Although horror stories on the Internet regale in claiming that “truth is not a defense” in Korean criminal defamation, the truth had better be actually defamatory before any punishment is meted out.

One can easily think of many circumstances in which even a true fact about a person can lower social esteem, in a way that does not impinge on the public interest. If, for example, Person A has an embarrassing venereal disease, what would justify the actions of Person B who, intending to harm Person A’s reputation, widely publicizes that true fact?

Because the standards for criminal defamation are fairly strict, Korea’s prosecutors frequently decline to indict after receiving the criminal complaint. Even if the prosecutors do indict and the case moves forward, more than 90% of  cases are dismissed or result in the prosecution’s defeat. (The author’s opinion is that the Korean government’s case against the Sankei’s Mr. Kato will fail as well because of the “public purpose” defense.)  [Wall Street Journal]

I highly recommend reading the rest at the link, for those interested in this topic.

Cheerleaders perform at a basketball game in Ulsan City, South Gyeongsang Province, on Dec. 15, 2014. (Yonhap)

Considering how many more US and Japanese F-35s will be located in Japan it makes sense that the deep maintenance facility would be located there.  Of course the ROKs have to show their displeasure with this:

South Korea said on Thursday it will not send its F-35 fleet to Japan for heavy airframe maintenance, one of the two Asian hubs chosen by the United States to service the Lockheed Martin Corp stealth fighter.

Instead, it is likely to fly the jets to Australia for maintenance, about eight times further away than Japan and well beyond their operating range. The three nations, all key U.S. allies, are the only countries in the region to have ordered the F-35s.

The F-35 program has been lauded as an example of the United States and its allies working together to bolster inter-operability, but in Asia the maintenance plan is bringing traditional rivalry between Seoul and Tokyo to the fore.

The three-star air force general who runs the F-35 program for the United States, Chris Bogdan, told reporters on Wednesday that Japan would handle heavy maintenance for the jets in the northern Pacific from early 2018, with Australia to handle maintenance in the southern Pacific.

“There will never be a case where our fighter jets will be taken to Japan for maintenance,” said an official at South Korea’s arms procurement agency, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

“South Korea has the right to decide where to conduct maintenance for its F-35 jets, and it will decide whenever the need arises.”

The plan at the moment is for the 40 F-35s to be acquired by South Korea to be serviced in Australia, an Australian defense ministry source told Reuters on condition he wasn’t identified.

South Korea will receive the first of the stealth planes in 2018.

A source familiar with the F-35 program said South Korea could, at a later stage, negotiate with Washington on the possibility of handling the heavy maintenance of its own F-35 jets.

Such a deal would require a significant investment by Seoul, including specialized equipment used to test the jets’ stealth. [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but when the ROKs decided to pursue the F-35 you would think that this was something that was discussed as part of the contract talks; so this should not be too surprising. I would not be surprised that this is just a big media show for domestic consumption now.  2023 is the earliest that the ROK’s F-35 need servicing so a lot can change by then.   So it makes sense that Korean politicians now do not want the headache of being accused of compromising defense of the nation to Japan needlessly and let politicians down the road work something out where these planes are quietly serviced in Japan.

It will be interesting to see if South Korea goes the way of the US with affirmative action laws:

With a soaring number of migrants in society, Korea should push for affirmative action measures to help curb discrimination, promote coexistence with those from various backgrounds and bring about inclusive growth, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said.

The city government has been working with the International Organization for Migration for the first International Migrants Day campaign in Seoul to kick off Thursday, aimed at promoting awareness about migrants by highlighting their contributions to Korea.

Given rampant bias that often turns into hate speech, affirmative action plans similar to those in the U.S. will play a significant role in boosting public understanding about migrants and building a social safety net for the minorities, Park said.

“It will take a long time to practically achieve equal rights in society as far as (discrimination) remains embedded in the people’s subconscious, which is why I think we need affirmative action,” he said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if the crackdown on illegal taxi practices will include the high fares that some of these taxi drivers try and charge US military servicemembers instead of running the meter?:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday it would clamp down on illegal business practices of taxi drivers for the rest of the month.

Working with Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the city government deployed 120 officials, 277 police officers and four patrol cars equipped with surveillance cameras to prevent taxi drivers from turning down certain passengers in violation of regulations.

Taxis are required to accept customers regardless of their destination, but the practice of taxi drivers handpicking passengers or speeding away from them for various reasons is rampant in Seoul and elsewhere.

Seoul City officials will patrol the 24 busiest districts in Seoul including Jongno-gu, Guro-gu and Gangnam-gu until Dec. 31.

Officials will impose a fine of 200,000 won ($180) on taxi drivers who refuse passengers. The city also plans to clamp down weekly on taxis from other areas such as Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, which are barred from transporting customers within Seoul.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

I guess a billionaire has to find ways to spend his money:

The Sultan of Brunei rented out half of a luxury hotel in Busan for the two days of the ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit, according to an industry source.

The source said Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, accompanied by 12 princes and princesses, booked 119 rooms. The sultan stayed in a presidential suite measuring 654 square meters, with a spectacular ocean view, which costs 10 million won per day. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the Sultan is worth $40 billion from his kingdom’s oil and gas riches.

Park Chun-bong, who has admitted to killing a woman and brutally butchering her body in Suwon, south of Seoul, is flanked by police officers as he leaves the Suwon Western Police Station on Dec. 14, 2014, to attend a hearing for his arrest warrant. (Yonhap)

There has been funding battles going on between the national and provincials governments in Korea in regards to the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.  The IOC has now stepped in to recommend that Korea try and share the 2018 Games with Japan to reduce costs.  It appears the suggestion of sharing the games with their rival Japan has gotten the attention of Korea:

The 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games chief organizer confirmed Friday “there is no possibility” events will be shared with cities outside of Korea.

“Construction for all the venues for the PyeongChang Games has begun. At this juncture, it is difficult to adopt the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) reform package,” the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) President and CEO Cho Yang-ho said in a statement.

He said he “highly appreciates” the IOC’s initiative for the reforms because it will be very effective for the Olympic Movement down the road, but insists all events in 2018 will be staged in the counties of PyeongChang and Jeongseon, and the city of Gangneung.

The IOC Monday unanimously approved President Thomas Bach’s 40-point “Olympic Agenda 2020” reform package, which includes recommendations allowing cities to stage some events in different countries to cut costs.

The IOC is worried that a new sliding venue under construction in Gangwon Province may have little use after the Games and wants the POCOG to move sliding events to countries that already have venues, such as Japan. But, local governments and interested parties have insisted they have no intention of splitting the host role with other countries.  [Korea Times]

So the bottom line is that all the venues that will have no use after the Olympics will be built.

It will be interesting to see if the US State Department gets involved in this since this pro-North Korean stooge is a US citizen:

A Korean-American woman has been temporarily banned from leaving the country amid an investigation into her alleged pro-North Korean remarks during a series of talk shows, police said Thursday.

The move comes after local conservative civic groups filed a complaint against Shin Eun-mi, 53, and Hwang Sun, the former deputy spokeswoman of the now-defunct Democratic Labor Party, with the police.

During the talk shows where guests and the audience exchange views on a specific subject, the two women, as guests, allegedly made remarks sympathetic toward the communist regime and painted the North Korean regime in a positive light.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency probing the case said it banned Shin from leaving the country for 10 days as she had disobeyed an order to appear for questioning.

Shin, who has published a book on her trip to North Korea, had reportedly planned to leave South Korea on Friday.

Earlier in the day, police also raided Hwang’s home and the office of a talk show organizer as part of their investigation.

Hwang is known for having given birth to a baby girl during a sightseeing trip to North Korea in 2005.

Police have reportedly been investigating the duo on suspicion of violating South Korea’s draconian National Security Law that bans any “anti-state” activities that attempt to praise, encourage or propagandize North Korean political ideals.  [Yonhap]

For those that don’t know the Democratic Labor Party was the political party in South Korea that was filled with a number of people who ended up being convicted for spying for North Korea.

Via a reader tip comes news that Yongsan Garrison will have some visitors looking to find evidence of oil leakage from Yongsan Garrision:

South Korea and the United States agreed Tuesday to allow local environmental experts to conduct a field study on a U.S. military base in central Seoul suspected of polluting groundwater and its nearby land.

The Yongsan Garrison is suspected of being the source of leaking oil that has polluted at least 12,000 square meters of land and more than 7 million liters of underground water since 2001 when the first oil spill was reported.

The agreement was reached at the latest Joint Committee meeting on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) aimed at discussing an array of issues governing the legal status of 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry.

To address the suspected oil leakage, both sides formed a joint working group consisting of officials from Seoul’s environment ministry, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government in June last year.

“The two sides agreed to allow Korea’s environmental experts to visit the garrison in the near term for a field inspection into possible pollution sources,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “They shared the view that the move will contribute to the fundamental resolution of the matter.”

Seoul has made repeated requests to the U.S. for its cooperation with the inspection of the garrison, which have been long ignored by the U.S. Under the SOFA, the South Korean government can investigate USFK bases only if permission is granted.  [Yonhap]

This inspection is really nothing unprecedented because when the camps in the 2nd Infantry Division closed out almost ten years ago the environmental ministry and NGO types visited those camps as well.  What is going on with Yongsan is that there has been oil found dripping in the subway lines, but no one has been able to confirm where it is coming from and the Korean government believes it is coming from Yongsan Garrison.

Anyway here is how the article ends with a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with the oil spill issue:

Concerning crimes committed by U.S. forces stationed here, South Korea asked the U.S. to tighten discipline among its soldiers at end-year, the ministry said.

Crimes committed by U.S. servicemen have declined, but sex and drug-related crimes rose between 2011 and 2013, the ministry added. In response, the U.S. said it will sternly deal with any kinds of sex crimes, vowing to cooperate with Seoul over crimes by U.S. soldiers.

South Korean authorities have often failed to take legal action against U.S. soldiers as the SOFA regulations allow the suspects to be handed over to U.S. authorities.

Having compiled these stats in the past I do not trust any GI crime statistics put out by Koreans which are often inflated.  With that said that I am sure that drug crimes have risen because of the crackdown the ROK has done on inspecting US mail.  There has been plenty of idiot soldiers caught in the past few years sending drugs through the mail.