A gang rape in Daegu is drawing national media attention in South Korea after a mother’s petition to the ROK Blue House draws large public support:
A petition to the Cheong Wa Dae website posted by the mother of a gang-rape victim has garnered more than 300,000 supporters in less than a month.
This means the presidential office should act on the petition within 30 days.
In the petition, the mother said her daughter is still suffering from threats from the alleged perpetrators and their friends.
“They boasted about raping my daughter and posted on Facebook their claim that my daughter had seduced them to have sex, which is not true,” the mother said. “My daughter couldn’t bear it and stopped going to school.”
According to Jungbu Police Station in Daegu, six middle school and high school students have been charged with raping the girl in April.
The mother said in an interview with a local daily that it was not six but seven involved in the crime, with one getting away because he didn’t have sex. She said the students and their parents never apologized. [Korea Times]
The problem you run into with false rape accusations is that authorities are likely hesitant to investigate much less prosecute because they will be accused of “blaming the victim”:
More than 220,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the government and the National Assembly to toughen the law against false accusations of sex crimes.
As of Thursday, 220,450 people have signed the petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website. The person who posted the plea on May 25 said Korea needs a law that punishes those who take advantage of its faulty justice system with heavier penalties.
“False accusations destroy the lives of the accused and their families. Nevertheless, accusers rarely face legal consequences, and when they do, they get off lightly,” the person said.
The call came after YouTube star Yang Ye-won’s controversial claims that she was forced to model for pornographic pictures at a Seoul photo studio in 2015. After it was revealed that she asked the accused photographer to give her more photo opportunities, which she did not mention during her YouTube “confession,” many people have doubted her claims and expressed fear of false allegations.
According to the Ministry of Justice’s investigation guidelines, prosecutors and police cannot initiate investigations into alleged false accusations of sex crimes until they conclude that the accused is evidently innocent. [Korea Times]
Here is another case of a Korean man allegedly behaving badly on Guam:
A Superior Court of Guam judge has allowed a South Korean soccer player charged with sexual assault to return home for military service, pending his trial.
Kim Byong-oh is accused of sexually assaulting a woman on Jan. 22 at a Guam resort, the Pacific Daily News reported Monday.
Kim was indicted on three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Kim was on Guam with the Sangju Sangmu soccer team for training in January.
The 22-year-old woman who accused Kim told police that she woke up in a hotel room to Kim rubbing her stomach and breast. She told police that Kim also took off her underwear and raped her.
The woman said she ran out of the hotel room and found a security guard who called police. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the woman is from South Korea so it will be interesting to see if the Guam legal system moves forward with prosecution or hands it over to Korean authorities to prosecute.
In addition to being an odd story, I am some what surprised he actually received 7 years in jail for rape:
A Korean man was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping the sister of his Filipino wife. The man, 39, surnamed Jeon, was also ordered to receive 120 hours of sex-crime prevention education.
An appellate court in Gwangju handed down the ruling on Wednesday, overturning a lower court’s acquittal.
“The accused raped his sister-in-law who came from the Philippines to attend his wedding ceremony. It’s really a bad crime,” wrote Judge Lee Jae-kwon in a ruling statement. “The victim experienced a great deal of humiliation, shame and mental shock, which caused serious depression, stress-driven emotional disorder and chronic insomnia.”
According to court documents, the incident happened on Feb. 15 last year, three days before the wedding ceremony. The groom-to-be raped his sister-in-law after they went out together to buy gifts for wedding guests.
A lower court acquitted him based on circumstantial and tangible evidence, with which it presumed the two to be in a romantic relationship. [Korea Times]
Here is another article about the modern day comfort women that few in South Korea seem to care about:
North Korean women experience high levels of sexual violence in their country and in China, say women who have defected. File Photo by Andrew Wong/UPI
A defector who says she was raped in a North Korean prison camp and was a victim of human trafficking in China said most North Korean women who work with brokers have experienced some form of rape.
May Joo, 37, who resettled in the United States after leaving North Korea in 2005, told UPI on Monday that even rape victims do not know the act is categorically a crime.
“That’s because [North Koreans] do not have a concept of human rights,” Joo said. “The violation of women’s rights, they don’t know what that is.
“Rape victims just think, ‘Well, I guess that happened.’ It never occurs to them to speak up, or seek justice.”
In the era of a global #MeToo movement, where women are increasingly vocalizing their anger and naming perpetrators of sexual abuse, the lack of rights protection for North Korean women is a reminder the Kim Jong Unregime — which stunned the world by offering to talk with U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in — has yet to address what may be the most pressing issue in the country.
Yoonseo Lee, 32, whose hometown is in North Korea’s South Hwanghae Province, said sexual violence is a serious problem in North Korea, but incidents of rape are more common in China.
“Getting raped is preferable to arrest in China,” said Lee, who resettled in South Korea. “Because the minute you alert the authorities, you are arrested.” [UPI]
It will be interesting to see what President Moon has to say about this considering that An Hee-jung was looked at as a possible successor to Moon in the next Presidential election:
An Hee-jung
South Chungcheong Province Governor An Hee-jung has been accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting his secretary over the past eight months.
During a TV interview on JTBC, a local cable channel, Monday, Kim Ji-eun who has served as An’s secretary since June, claimed that the 54-year-old assaulted her four times and frequently sexually harassed her.
He has reportedly admitted to having sexual relations with her, but insists they were consensual.
Kim said she will file a complaint with the prosecution Tuesday.
The shocking news of his behavior could bring about the end of his political career regardless of the nature of their relationship. An was regarded as one of the strongest hopefuls for the country’s next president.
“Our sexual relations were not consensual, and I’m sure he knows it,” Kim said. “I was not in a position where I could say no.”
She said there was no one that could help her.
The accusation comes amid the spread of the #MeToo movement here, which was triggered by female prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun in January.
“After the issue about the movement came into the spotlight, An appeared to be anxious,” Kim said. “On Feb. 25, he called me into his office and apologized. But then, he did it again … I thought I would never be able to get away from him at that time.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if this is something An has been doing for years and Kim Ji-eun just happens to be the first person to speak out against him.
Kim Ji-eun speaks out during an interview on JTBC on Monday. / Captured from JTBC
South Korea’s infamous “molar daddy” has been rightfully given the death penalty after raping and killing a 14-year old girl:
Lee Young-hak
A Seoul court on Wednesday meted out a death sentence for a man charged with killing a school friend of his daughter after sexually molesting her.
The Seoul Northern District Court handed down the gravest possible punishment on Lee Young-hak, 36, who had confessed to choking a 14-year-old girl to death in his home last September after committing lewd acts on her body while she was drugged.
Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty.
The court sentenced his daughter, whose identity was not revealed, to four years in prison for luring the friend to the house and helping her father dump her body. But her sentence can be extended up to six years in case of an infraction during her four-year imprisonment. [Korea Times]
Some of these sex offenders should be physically castrated, but chemical castration I guess is a start:
The National Assembly passed an amendment on Friday that would allow chemical castration as punishment for people found guilty of attempted rape, expanding the scope of a law punishing sex offenders.
The bill also stipulates that sex offenders whose acts lead to injury or the death of minors are added to the list of those subject to chemical castration.
Under the amendment, chemical castration does not apply to people who film parts of people’s bodies using a hidden camera.The government had proposed that the secret photographing of people be included under the scope of the law.
The law came into effect in 2011 — the first Asian country to adopt this type of treatment — amid public outcry over a series of rapists reoffending following their release.
Chemical castration involves administering medication — either via injection or tablets — to take away sexual interest and make it impossible for a person to perform sexual acts.The effects are reversible after the person stops taking the drug. [Korea Times]
At least this scumbag is out of society for the rest of his life:
Kenneth Franklin Gadson was given life in prison for the slaying of 20-year-old Okinawan office worker Rina Shimabukuro, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017.
The former U.S. base worker accused of raping and killing a 20-year-old Okinawan woman last year was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor after being convicted of her murder Friday at Naha District Court.
A panel of three judges and six jurors found Kenneth Franklin Gadson, 33, guilty of murder, rape resulting in death and the illegal disposal of a body in the slaying of Uruma office worker Rina Shimabukuro. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars at Yokosuka Prison in Kurihama, barring a successful appeal.
“The life of the victim — who had just celebrated her adulthood — was suddenly taken and her body was abandoned in the bushes,” chief judge Toshihiro Shibata said when reading the verdict.
“Her body was not found until it was reduced to bone; her sorrow is immeasurable … even giving consideration to the fact that the body was found by the concession of the defendant and he had no previous criminal record, there is no reason to find a lighter sentence than life imprisonment,” he added. [Stars & Stripes]
