It seems to me if the Foreign Ministry really wants to send a message about the behavior of the former diplomat they should send him packing back to Chile to face legal consequences there:
A screengrab from a Chilean TV program showing South Korean diplomat Park Jeong-hak attempting to kiss an actress disguised as a teenage girl.
South Korea’s foreign ministry referred a diplomat to the prosecution on Wednesday over sexually abusing a teenage girl in Chile, officials said.
The councilor, previously posted at the South Korean Embassy in Chile, is accused of committing a sexual offense against a 14-year-old girl in September while teaching her Korean.
Tipped off by the girl, a Chilean television channel filmed and broadcast the diplomat sexually harassing another woman earlier in the month who was acting as a teenage girl trying to receive Korean language lessons.
Holding a disciplinary committee on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the diplomat surnamed Park from public office.
“Today, the ministry reported Park to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and submitted evidence including an indictment bill filed by the victim’s family,” officials here said. [Yonhap]
This is just another example of why these sexual assault cases are so hard to litigate and not as cut and dry as the activists and politicians want people to believe:
The Seoul High Court upheld Tuesday a lower court ruling that acquitted a former Korean soldier of raping a female American soldier, saying sexual relations between the two did not involve a physical attack or threats.
The Korean soldier, 22, whose name was withheld, was serving as a sergeant in the Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (KATUSA) in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, when he allegedly raped the U.S. soldier, 19, in December.
He was in charge of educating American soldiers new to Korea, and he and his accuser began seeing each other frequently and engaged in sexual relations from last October. However, on one occasion, while kissing at his barracks, the man told her he wanted to have sex and she refused. He then said he would not let her leave the room, and forcibly had sex with her anyway.
During sex, he asked her if it was rape, and as she said yes, he then stopped, and knelt down to apologize. She accepted his apology but later reported it as rape to the military police.
Even though the assailant partially admitted it was rape during the investigation, the lower and high courts did not recognize it as such.
“Although sexual intercourse occurred against the woman’s will, she said there was no physical attack, swearing or anything threatening,” the high court said. “She did not call for help or resist, but rather she undressed on her own volition,” it added. [Korea Times]
Should this be considered rape even though there was no physical attack and she did not resist in any way? The Korean courts don’t think so, I wonder what a US court would have ruled on this? I also wonder why the ROK Army did not try this case and instead gave it to a ROK civilian court?
Here is an update in regards to one of the recent stories of senior military officers getting themselves in serious trouble. This was the case that was going to be interesting going to trial because his lawyer was using the defense that the adultery regulation in the UCMJ is unfair because it only applies to heterosexual couples. It would have been interesting to see how that defense would have played out which now we will never know:
Colorado Springs police Sgt. Tim Stanke says officers responded to a report of a suicide when they found the body of Col. Eugene Caughey on Sunday. Stanke says police are awaiting autopsy results.
The 46-year-old Caughey had been vice commander of the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base outside Colorado Springs. The unit operates key military satellite systems.
Caughey was charged with adultery, indecent filming or photography, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer.
Caughey is accused of raping a woman at Schriever Air Force Base, also in Colorado, in late 2014 or early 2015 while “holding her against the wall and floor using physical strength or violence,” court documents stated.
Prosecutors also accused him of photographing his exposed genitals while in uniform and groping women twice.
His court-martial was scheduled for Oct. 17. [CBS News]
I believe there has to be more to this story because why is this allegation coming to light now when this guy has been retired since 2009?:
The Air Force is investigating a sexual-assault report against a retired four-star general who was on active duty at the time of the alleged incident, service officials said Friday.
Details about the case are scant, but Col. Patrick Ryder, an Air Force spokesman, said the service will conduct a thorough investigation of Gen. Arthur J. Lichte, who retired as head of Air Mobility Command in 2009. Ryder declined to provide additional details, saying it would be inappropriate to do so. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but like I have always said people who have been victims of sexual assault need to immediately report the crime because as time goes by the more difficult it will be to prosecute. It will be interesting to see how this case proceeds.
Considering the age of consent in South Korea the only way these two could be charged with a crime is if these teenagers were coerced into the relationships. Considering the position of authority of a police officer you would think this would be coercive:
Two policemen in Busan resigned after it was found they had sex with high school students they were in charge of monitoring, but they faced no punishment and even received their severance pay.
One policeman surnamed Kim, 33, had sex with a 17-year-old high school student he was supposed to look after and guide, inside a car after school on June 4.
The case came to light as the student reported what had happend to the school nurse, who then alerted a female officer who was managing students at another school, who then passed the case to Busan Saha Police Station.
The Saha Police Station’s section chief verified and confirmed the facts with Kim and the school, however, closed the case without reporting to higher authorities by advising Kim to resign.
Kim handed in his notice the next day, on June 9, saying he had “decided to continue his parents’ business.” He received no punishment and received his severance pay.
When the case belatedly erupted over social media on Friday, the section chief denied having had any knowledge of the incident prior to Kim’s resignation.
A 31-year-old police officer at Busan Yeonje Police Station also had a sexual relationship with a high school student he was supervising. The teenager reportedly contemplated taking her life after the incident. Whether the two had sex more than once is yet to be confirmed.
The case was discovered by a teenagers’ welfare organization that had had a consultation session with the student. When the organization attempted to verify the case with Jeong, he filed for resignation from his post on May 17, claiming that being a police officer did not “fit his aptitude.” [Korea Herald]
Here is a general safety note to everyone, do not let strange people into your apartment that you just met in the elevator:
The 36-year-old sex offender arrested last Saturday for allegedly murdering a 60-year-old woman in Gaepo-dong, southern Seoul, did not know his victim as he claimed.
Police now say he stalked a complete stranger, sneaked into her house to rape her and then killed her so he wouldn’t get caught.
After his arrest on June 18, the suspect, surnamed Kim, claimed he met the victim while working at a real estate agency and had known her for about a month. He told police he asked her to lend him money and murdered her when she refused.
But investigators found no record of calls or texts between the two.
Under questioning, Kim changed his story. According to police, Kim saw the victim in a parking lot on June 14, two days before the murder. Security camera footage caught him in the same parking lot as the victim.
He tailed her as she drove to her residence because he wanted to develop a “good relationship” with her, Kim said, according to police. He followed her into the apartment building elevator and introduced himself as an insurance salesman, a profession he had started to study.
He asked to come inside her apartment to tell her about policies and she agreed. When she punched the code into the security keypad of her apartment, he noted the combination of numbers. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but this guy was out on parole after being jailed for 10 years for a prior sexual assault and was forced to wear an ankle bracelet. However, it broke and no one was tracking him when he committed the crime.
The arrest of the three men accused of gang raping a Korean teacher on the remote Korean island Heuksan-do has finally happened. Due to the public outrage it appears the Korean police are not going to give the perpetrators the benefit of using the “I was drunk excuse” so commonly used in these cases:
Three suspects have been charged with premeditated rape and assault in the investigation of a sexual assault case involving a female teacher in her 20s by three local men from Heuksan Island in Sinan County, South Jeolla.
The three suspects were scheduled to be sent to the prosecution today for further investigation. Each is a father of children in kindergarten, elementary or middle school. The children of two of the suspects are attending the school where the victim worked. They were arrested by police last Saturday, after the victim reported the crime.
One of the suspects, surnamed Park, 49, owns the restaurant where the teacher was having dinner prior to the crime on May 21. He and one other suspect, Lee, 34, are accused of having invited the teacher to join them and getting her drunk.
After the victim became intoxicated, Park brought her to a building at an elementary school at 11:00 p.m in his car while Lee followed. About 30 minutes later, police say, the other suspect, Kim, 38, drove to the elementary school building, as well.
The police initially planned to impose less severe charges on the three since they claimed the rape was not planned.
“The testimonies of the three suspects didn’t match,” said a police officer. “They seemed to have lied when they said the crime was not plotted.”
But given that the three suspects live in the same neighborhood, contacted each other before and after the crime and went inside the building and raped the victim in sequence, the police charged them with premeditated rape. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link. Also for those wondering where Heuksan-do island is located at here is a Google Map of its location:
Incredibly the arrest of one of the suspects surnamed Kim has been linked to a 2007 rape in Daejon. The DNA found on the teacher matched the DNA found on the victim in the Daejon case. Due to the victim speaking out about this rape she may have gotten a serial rapist off the streets. It seems like if someone wanted to lie low and hide out somewhere Heuksando would be a place to go.
I would not be surprised if the perpetrators thought they could get away with this simply because they were on a remote island that had no police station:
Koreans have been appalled by a gang rape of a female teacher in her 20s on Heuksan Island off Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, after the case was made public last week. The predators included the parents of the teacher’s students, triggering public uproar about the blatant disregard for teachers and women.
The authorities need to ensure that the men in this case are duly punished and that the victim is given proper physical and emotional care before resuming her duties.
The rape case is a shocking reminder of the unsettling work conditions women are exposed to in remote areas such as Sinan County.
What is also shocking is the reaction from some of island’s residents, who seemed to be siding with the predators and blaming the victim for getting drunk in media interviews. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the Korea Herald had more details about the case:
The police revealed details of the case on June 3. The victim’s distress call came in the wee hours of May 22.
According to police, the victim had dinner at one of the local restaurants where she was asked to join the three suspects, two of whom are parents of children at her school.
The men insisted that the victim drink, despite her repeated refusal as she had plans to explore the village the next day.
Once the victim was inebriated, one of the men volunteered to drop her home and raped her at her residence, followed by the other two. [Korea Herald]
Some may say this is victim blaming, but I think it is just common sense to not get drunk alone with people you just met in a foreign country you know nothing about, unless of course they used a date rape drug against her which is an entirely different story. With that said lets hope these three guys are vigorously investigated by Korean authorities which have a well established track record of poorly handling sexual assault cases like this:
Three Korean males have been arrested on charges of gang-raping a Swedish tourist they met at a nightclub in Hongdae, Seoul, police said Wednesday.
The men, in their 20s, allegedly asked the woman to go out the club, saying they would “show her Korean nightlife” on May 14, according to investigators.
The tourist and the men drank until the next morning, resulting in the victim becoming very drunk. The men then allegedly took her to a house, where they raped her and photographed her naked body.
The victim complained to the Swedish Embassy, which asked police to investigate the matter.
The three were arrested on May 24 after police viewed surveillance camera recordings and photos of the suspects left on the woman’s mobile phone, according to Mapo Police Station. [Korea Times]
It looks like a New Zealand diplomat and his friends are in some serious trouble from an incident that happened recently in Itaewon:
Police questioned a New Zealand diplomat on Wednesday for allegedly obstructing officers who tried to arrest his friends on suspicion of molesting a female bar worker.
Yongsan Police Station in Seoul said two companions of the diplomat, whose identity remains unknown, allegedly molested a female employee at a bar in Itaewon Tuesday night and assaulted a security guard who tried to take them to police. As police tried to arrest the two, the diplomat allegedly pushed them and kicked the patrol car.
The diplomat and his friends were taken to the police station that night. But the diplomat was freed under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which gives foreign diplomats here immunity from civil or criminal prosecution. [Korea Times]
