The ROK Naval Captain is claiming that the sex was consensual, but regardless the Captain shouldn’t be sleeping with a junior officer in the first place. However, I am not sure if the ROK military has any guidelines against such behavior; if not it should:
A female Navy lieutenant, under the purview of the Navy’s headquarters at the Gyeryongdae compound, was found dead in her home on 5:40 p.m. Wednesday.
While the naval military police view the incident as a suicide, they arrested a male navy captain under allegations of having sexually assaulted the lieutenant the night before.
Her colleagues attempted to reach her by phone after noting her absence in the workplace.
When they went to her home and found she had apparently hanged herself, they contacted military police.
Near her body was a memo saying, “I guess I’m leaving empty-handed like this,” and “By tomorrow, I won’t be a person of this world.”
“There are no signs of forced entry,” military police said.
“She told me she was raped by a superior,” a friend told her family, who then told police.
The military police arrested a naval captain who was at the domicile.
According to naval military police, the two officers drank into the night at a departmental dinner. Police suspect the captain raped her after she lost consciousness.
“I can’t remember clearly cause I was drunk,” he said, adding that while they had sex, he maintains it was consensual. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This is the first time I have heard of something like this happening:
A 57-year-old South Korean security guard was found dead in an apparent suicide at a U.S. military base in Ujeongbu, South Korea, on Thursday, police said.
The officer, identified only by his last name Cha, was found with a gunshot wound in his head by a colleague at a guard post in the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, at around 1:20 a.m.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead.
In the 3.3-square-meter sentry post, a 45-caliber revolver provided by U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) for security purposes was found, they said. Cha was working alone when the incident took place.
He left what was seen as a suicide note at the site, referring to debts he was suffering from, according to police. Police said they will investigate the details of the incident based on testimonies from Cha’s colleagues and the bereaved family. [Korea Times]
This is a horrible way to commit suicide if in fact that is what happened:
A soldier of the South Korean Army died on Thursday when a grenade exploded during a training exercise in the Demilitarized Zone along the border with the North, military officials said, suspecting that it could be a suicide.
The Army PFC, identified only by his last name Yang, died when a grenade went off at around 2:20 p.m. Approximately 10 soldiers, including Yang, were engaged in a military drill in the DMZ near the border town when it happened, according to the officials.
The exact cause of the explosion has not been determined, but the military officials suspect that Yang might have committed suicide using his own grenade.
A note he allegedly wrote was reported to have been found later which read, “(This) has nothing to do with (his) military unit.” [Yonhap]
Lotte Group Vice Chairman Lee In-won was found dead on a hiking trail in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi, Friday morning, a few hours before he was to be questioned by prosecutors investigating corruption in the group.
The 69-year-old vice chairman was often described as the second-in-command of Lotte Group after Chairman Shin Dong-bin, or Shin’s right-hand man. He was the most powerful figure in the group outside the Shin family, managing all operations at some 90 Lotte affiliates.
Lee’s body was discovered lying on the ground next to a tree by a man in his 60s taking a morning walk, who called the police. It was around 7:11 a.m. and Lee was already dead when the man found him, according to police.
Police concluded Lee hanged himself on the tree using a tie and a scarf, but that the tree branch snapped.
“There is no extraordinary external injury, other than his neck showing signs of being hanged,” police said. “No signs that would point to possible murder or homicide.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Via a reader tip comes this unusual murder story involving two Korean businessman in California. Was it a suicide or murder, that is what a jury had to decide:
Beong Kwun Cho becomes emotional while testifying at his trial. Cho said Yeon Woo Lee wanted to die but wanted to spare his family of the social stigma and trauma of suicide. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Cho’s two daughters grew up considering Lee an uncle, he said. Their families vacationed together. The two men did business together.
Then a few months ago, Lee asked Cho for a favour he wasn’t sure he could do, even for his closest friend, he told the detective.
Lee’s motel business in Korea was foundering. His marriage was falling apart. Lee told Cho he wanted to die, but didn’t want to burden his family with the trauma and social stigma that comes with suicide, Cho said.
Lee tried to hire people he’d met at nearby casinos to kill him and make it look like a random crime, Cho said, but they demanded payment ahead of time and he didn’t trust them to go through with it. Ultimately, he turned to his best friend.
“He said there is no other way – this is the only way,” he told Trapp.
His friend orchestrated the entire scenario, Cho told police. It was Lee who procured the gun and a box of ammunition. Lee drove around scouting out possible sites, choosing a couple spots near bodies of water because he was superstitious. Lee arranged for them to go to a gun range together for target practice, and took Cho to a Wal-Mart where he bought black knit gloves and size 13 shoes – props to make his death look like a robbery.
Lee then chose the date for the deed, Cho said: his wife’s birthday. It would be his last gift.
After dinner that night, they each drove their cars to the first spot Lee had picked out, between Anaheim Lake and a basin, only to find that there were crews working there late into the night. They drove to a second location nearby, a quiet stretch of Miraloma Avenue.
Lee flattened the tyre, ransacked the glove compartment of his rental car and smoked a final cigarette. He handed Cho the revolver wrapped in a T-shirt before dropping to his knees with his back to his friend, Cho said.
“Keep talking to me so that I won’t know when I’m being shot. And while I’m talking … shoot me in the middle of our conversation,” his friend implored, Cho told the detective. [Sydney Morning Herald]
As it turns out the jury agreed with Cho that this was not murder and convicted him of voluntary manslaughter:
A man who shot his friend of more than three decades in the back of his head in an industrial area of east Anaheim is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder, an Orange County jury found Thursday.
Beong Kwun Cho, 56, admitted to police that he shot his friend, Yeon Woo Lee, and left him abandoned on the side of a road near a basin along Miraloma Avenue. But Cho insisted it was at the request of Lee, who wanted to die but didn’t want to burden his family with the social stigma and trauma associated with suicide. [LA Times]
I don’t advocate for people to commit suicide, but here is a power tip for those that can’t be deterred from doing so, make sure you don’t kill someone else during your attempt. This is just a horrible story that someone minding his own business, returning home with his family is killed like this:
A depressed college student jumped to his death from the 20th floor of an apartment building in Gokseong County, South Jeolla, and fell on a lauded civil servant, killing him.
The 39-year-old civil servant was walking home from a bus stop with his wife and their 6-year-old boy, police said. The wife was eight months pregnant.
The college student died immediately from a fractured skull, while the victim was transported to a nearby hospital but died about three hours later.
Police identified the student as a 25-year-old college senior who attended school in Gwangju and lived in a different apartment complex nearby. He reportedly jumped from the highest floor of a 20-floor apartment building around 9:50 p.m. Tuesday and left behind his cell phone, backpack and shoes.
In his backpack was a two-page note, part of which read, “I’m a lump of inferiority. My life is trash.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
I am sure this news is probably not surprising to most people who are familiar with South Korea. I am also sure most people in Korea know the hyper competitiveness is what is causing the high suicide rate, but little will probably be done to correct it:
An average of 29.1 people per 100,000 in South Korea committed suicides in 2012, exceeding the OECD average of 12, according to the OECD Health Data 2015.
The countries of Hungary followed next with 19.4 people per 100,000 taking their own lives and then Japan with 18.7 percent.
Korea has been posting a sharp increase in its suicide rate since 2000. While suicide rate in Japan remains high, it has been on the decline since 2010.
Suicide is a major concern in the nation; it is also cited as the top cause of death among teens and young people in 2013. [Korea Times]
