At least one Seoul neighborhood must be in shock after a 29-year-old man killed his ex-girlfriend, her mother and narrowly missed killing her father after breaking into their fifth-floor apartment in Amsa-dong. The man, identified by his family name of Kim, was reportedly miffed because his ex-girlfriend, a 27-year-old identified by her family name of Gong, was told by her parents to stop seeing him. Which she apparently did. Kim bludgeoned Gong and her mother to death; Gong’s father avoided the same fate by jumping three stories, receiving multiple fractures. Kim then apparently made an unsuccessful attempt on his own life, and is now undergoing treatment at an area hospital.
The family had reportedly been getting threatening emails from Kim and had requested police protection, but were told that police could not provide round-the-clock protection.
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46 Comments
Hmm, the father fled instead of defending his family. Between him and the assailant, quite a tribute to Korean manhood.
That’s pretty harsh, Spewer.
The police could not provide round-the-clock protection, but the family had e-mails as proof that he was a threat, so why didn’t they just arrest him? Oh yeah, because they’re Korean police–almost forgot. Uh, restraining order? WTF?
Sperwer, how unfair. We know nothing about what happened in that apartment, including whether or not Mr. Kong went down first fighting this lunatic Kim but simply wasn’t killed. In other words, did Kim overpower Kong then go on to murder the family? Anyway, he’s now the survivor of the bloody massacre of his family. That’s got to be hell enough without mean things being said about his manhood.
As for a restraining order, those are only as valuable as (i) the willingness of the restrainee to observe the court order, and (ii) the willingness of the police to actually enforce the order once it’s inevitably ignored. There are lots of murdered Americans who went down waving a restraining order.
I hear you, Mr. Carr, but does Korea even have such a system? Although from the specimens I’ve seen around here in police uniforms I wouldn’t bother….
While Sperwer’s response does seem harsh, it is an idea that I have heard from a number of female students in my univeristy conversation classes. One in particular who refuses to play along with the male dominated society thing claimed that Korean men in general no longer have the right to demand that females serve them seeing as the men don’t even bother to protect females. She made this comment in reference to the Japanese occupation and comfort women. It sure did precipitate a lively ‘debate’ after the three older males, including a couple of university profs, recovered from the fits of apoplexy.
Well, Korea never did have the save-the-damsel-in-distress chivalry idea that Europe developed… there’s very little little of that theme in all the collections of their folk-tales and religious-edification stories. Much more common as a theme is something where a young woman is forced to take shelter in the farmhouse or hermitage with a lone man or monk in it, and he could “take advantage of her” but doesn’t, and then he is later rewarded for his virtue…
Brendon:
The story is that the Gong pere was injured in his fall; no sign of bludgeoning or even defensive wounds. The guy is a disgrace.
We’re not all gigantic martial-arts fiends like you, Mr. Sperwer. I admit my own response probably would be to go down fighting myself (rather quickly, in my case) but I’m loth to judge others.
Brendon:
It’s not a matter of size - as you well know ;)) - but of a disposition for which everyone is eligible, male or female (although conventionally, it’s our role). You were part of the spear once yourself, even if you weren’t excatly at the pointy end, so good on ya.
The guy must’ve done something… Nobody would let that happen…
Moosehead: Korean guys like to “protect” their women when they think I am hitting on a Korean girl. But they do it through humilating –staring at– the woman, almost ignoring me.
That said, and on a slightly different angle, doesn’t the “protector role” in the family generally fall on the mothers? Who goes out and raises Hell when the kid comes home with a bloody nose?
What can you say? You have your evidence and you work from there.
In my opinion it’s a weak motive. We must be dealing with a lunatic. How did he kill the women? Repeated stabbing?
oh I see now, bludgeoned..sorry
wow
wonder how he did it.
this guy’s insane.
According to this news, her parents turned him down only because he had only graduated from high school
http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....09041.html
If the guy already disrespected the woman then they should have married.
“If the guy already disrespected the woman then they should have married.”
If you are talking about what I think you are talking about…thanks for the chuckle. Potential derail of thread incoming?
I would only ask then what is the most practical way of protecting one’s family or self when in a situation like this? I know that, in the states, one could keep a gun in their house, just in case but what could be done here that might help.
Is it not possible to buy police-grade pepper spray in Korea?
In the states, not only homeowners, but criminals also arm themselves with guns. I’ll take my chances with knife-wielding Koreans over US thugs toting high-powered automatic rifles that fire armor-piercing bullets.
How many times have I read Korean kids comments like “all whities are like this or like that” when reading the “stupid foreigner tricks” articles.
The problem with Sperwer’s comment, “tribute to Korean manhood” is that his neural waves have synchronized with Hanchongryun standard. Just reverse polarity.
“I would only ask then what is the most practical way of protecting one’s family or self when in a situation like this?”
In Korea, there is none. If the victim kills the intruder in self defense, the victim will go to jail for murdering the attacker - or at best, be forced to pay the deceased man’s family. Yeap. That’s how the law works in Korea. Thou shalt not kill - no matter what the reason is, good or bad.
In response to this: “If the victim kills the intruder in self defense, the victim will go to jail for murdering the attacker”
I think there are a lot of things that’s broken in Korea, and much would be improved if they would adopt US practices. I can’t say that this would be one of them.
I can’t help but remember the outrage of the Japanese public when a japanese international student went into a neighbor’s yard by mistake on Halloween and graciously received molten lead in his face. The “victim” of the intrusion, as I remember, was found innocent of his actions.
I call BULLSHIT
I would like to see some documentation on this faux law of yours.
This is pathetic the father jumped to flee from defending his family’s honor and safety, after telling the would-be killer he’s not good enough for his daughter or family. What’s so horrible about being just a high school graduate? Most of the Canadian English teachers are just elementary school graduates. Hehe j/k.
I ***guarantee*** I’d take this dude, whether he’s got a knife or a baseball bat — it’s a shame it came to this. Wounds heal eventually, in most cases, but a daughter and wife… my heart really goes out to both families involved, what a horrible tragedy.
The father should have kicked his ass. What kind of wimpy ass person runs, err jumps away from a fight? But, what kind of person can kill two women??? Gee, my love is so selfish, if she can’t be with me, she’ll be with nobody. Nice logic. Love is blind and deadly apparently.
So, after the father killed the attacker, what’s to prevent him and his family from moving to Canada or the U.S. to prevent any civil/criminal prosecution?
In Korea, there is none. If the victim kills the intruder in self defense, the victim will go to jail for murdering the attacker
Mother of f*ck…that is absolutely insane.
Anybody know how old the father is? Dude was probably incapable of defending anybody, including himself. Maybe.
Also, do we know if the killer killed the two people first before the father had any idea what was going on? What if it was too late? Perhaps, in some way, he already discovered his daughter and wife dead and fleed in time to avoid the same thing….though I know it would probably take a while to bludgeon someone to death, I guess. The translation doesn’t specify exactly who was where and when. I just seriously doubt he saw the guy that was about to maim his daughter/wife and ran away when he might have been able to prevent it…though it’s possible.
aletheia
I hear ya. I suspect they think/know that the rooster act works better on the hens than on another rooster. I still get men who approach my wife and I at a bar/restaraunt, make all friendly, and then proceed to berate my wife for being with a foreigner, all the while assuming I don’t know what he is saying. Makes for a good laugh when I tell him, albeit in my ‘rooster’ pose, that he is no longer welcome to drink our beer/soju.
virtual wonderer: In response to this: “If the victim kills the intruder in self defense, the victim will go to jail for murdering the attacker”
I think there are a lot of things that’s broken in Korea, and much would be improved if they would adopt US practices. I can’t say that this would be one of them.
I can’t help but remember the outrage of the Japanese public when a japanese international student went into a neighbor’s yard by mistake on Halloween and graciously received molten lead in his face. The “victim” of the intrusion, as I remember, was found innocent of his actions.
Perhaps.
If the elder Kong should have known of US practices he would have bellowed “Geet off ma Got-dang property!” while wielding a 12-gauge shotgun in the general direction of a crazed, homocidal maniac, thus preventing a tragic crime of passion from occuring, and thereby sparing us all of idiots expats who want to have a dick waving contest with a 57 year old man.
Bluejives:
George Costanza…
Got a statute reference for this ? Given my almost complete lack of education in the Korean criminal code(s) I am reticent to call 100% unequivocal bullshit on this - but it seems mighty incongruous to me.
peace.
There’s no statute which says kill an intruder, go to jail. The Criminal Code simply says kill, go to jail. Korean law recognizes no right of the individual to use force in self-defense as we would understand it in the United States, and certainly no right to use force to defend others, or to use deadly force in any case. A victim of an attack here in Korea merely has the right to flee or to curl up and hope to survive until the State can rescue him. Too bad the State is lazy.
How do I know? Well, I’m a lawyer working here in Korea with some experience in the criminal justice system and comparative criminal law. Also, I myself have been attacked here in Korea, and prosecuted for using mild force to extricate myself (knocking down the attacker, thereby causing more damage than I myself suffered). Korean police and prosecutors deem the party more seriously injured to be the “victim”, which is easy and dispenses with the need to think very carefully or to seek and interview witnesses.
So does this mean there are no private security contractors and such in Korea ? (come to think of it I do not remember seeing any in my time there).
As I say I have no education (nor experience) in the area so I will defer to your knowledge Brendon - whalst all the while shaking my head in wonder at how such a system can possibly function in reality.
peace.
This sort of jurisprudence is insanity and grossly unjust. Brendon, what is to prevent someone from picking a fight and feigning injury, just to blackmail someone for money? Does this actually mean if someone breaks into my home, I can not use deadly force to stop them from killing me!?
“Does this actually mean if someone breaks into my home, I can not use deadly force to stop them from killing me!?”
Just keep a saw and some Hefty® SteelSak® trash bags on hand for those occasions when you need to take justice into your own hands.
Brendon, you mentioned being prosecuted for injuring an assailant during his attack on you, so do you have some sort of criminal record as a result?
If so, did/does that present an obstacle in your profession, or do things have to be more serious than that? In a similar vein, does that type of situation present difficulties to visa-holding non-Koreans in general, above those faced by Korean citizens, or do things need to be more serious than that?
“This sort of jurisprudence is insanity and grossly unjust. Brendon, what is to prevent someone from picking a fight and feigning injury, just to blackmail someone for money?”
Some people I knew were involved in an assault case many years ago and we heard some interesting things from a lawyer. Basically, if two guys crossed paths on a dark street somewhere, one guy could beat the shit out of himself, swear up and down that the other guy did it, and odds are he would win. That came pretty much from the lawyers mouth.
The specific case was that a drunk guy (et al) sucker punched some foreign guys outside of a bar. The foreign guys beat up the Korean guys pretty badly. The really beat up guy (who started the whole thing) ran to the police station and came back with the cops. The cops basically arrested three guys who had nothing to do with the situation but the “victim” swore to the cops that it was them. Prosecuted, blood money, etc….
Now any reasonable person should have been able to see that they had nothing to do with it. No scratches, no marks, clothes all nicely worn, hair still gelled, etc. Did not matter. The guy swore.
So in answer to your question…uh…nothing. From my personal experience anyways.
gbnhj,
No criminal record here. But to avoid it, I had to express — strenuously — willingness to get one confirmed by the Supreme Court. The prosecutor really wants the accused to be penitent and to submit. Probably I was going to get a “summary conviction” and a small fine. But since I hadn’t done anything and was in fact attacked by a miscreant, that Hurt My Pride™ and I wasn’t going to take it lying down. He decided prosecuting me would be too much work.
It wasted 40-50 hours of my life, though. Probably ought to have paid off the “victim”.
Who wrote Korea’s penal code, Monty Python? What other country has this retarded law?
Lots of other “advanced” countries place strict limitations on the right of individuals to self-defense. America is rather unique, actually.
How many allow the attacker compensation for premeditated assault? And apparently without recourse to witness testimony?
Frankly I’m quite surprised that lot of people didn’t believe me. Well bubba, there is no self defense plead in Korea. So think very very carefully before you decide to use violence. That’s what this was designed to do - make you think carefully and discourage the use of violence.
I can’t help but think that a lot of foreigners who claim discrimination from Korean courts have this simple misunderstanding as the reason why they think the Korean law is so unfair to them. My understanding is that Korean courts are fair when it comes to application of the law. As for the comparison and viability of the law in Korea and the US, who is to say that people wouldn’t kill someone out of spite and claim self defense?
There is no perfect law to prevent crime, but compare the homicidal rate of two countries Korea and the US, and tell me whose law works better.
Knowing of this law, I once asked a police officer I knew what I should do if threatened. She basically told me that, if otherwise unavoidable, beat the shit out of the guy and then flee the scene as fast as possible.
“There is no perfect law to prevent crime, but compare the homicidal rate of two countries Korea and the US, and tell me whose law works better”
The large gap in homicide rates is probably more a reflection of strict gun control laws than differences in the right to self-defense.
Lots of other “advanced” countries place strict limitations on the right of individuals to self-defense.
But it’s not really about strict limitations on self-defense… it’s that it seems Korea completely rules it out, period.
Knowing of this law, I once asked a police officer I knew what I should do if threatened. She basically told me that, if otherwise unavoidable, beat the shit out of the guy and then flee the scene as fast as possible.
Jeez…
…Was she hot?
…Was she hot?
Not really, unfortunately. Fit, though.
The large gap in homicide rates is probably more a reflection of strict gun control laws than differences in the right to self-defense????
Sorry, but I’d say about half the Americans just don’t agree with you there. They’d argue the other way around - loose gun control prevents even higher homicide rate thru the acts of self defense by law abiding gun owners.
I would only state that two people are dead because what passes for law enforcement in Korea failed and if the father had fought back and killed this murderer, he would have faced prosecution under Korean law.
Considering such, it is an injustice to punish anyone who might pursue their own self-preservation, even if they inadvertently manage to kill someone. The failure to make a distinction between the *desire* to kill rather than the desire to protect and preserve life is a gross failure of the Korean legal system, for there can be no honest justice within such a system that does not recognize what is universally considered a basic human need — the need for self-preservation.