Police in Gyeonggi-do announced Wednesday that they have arrested a 31-year-old English teacher who was wanted by the American FBI for a 1996 home home invasion in Pennsylvania. The home’s occupant, a former police officer, was shot dead during the crime.
The teacher, identified as Mr. Nam, posted a US$1 million bail and fled to Korea the following year.
Korean police received in 1998 a request from the FBI to locate Nam. In March 1999, they arrested him, but let him go because Korea and the United States had yet to sign an extradition treaty. Afterwards, Nam went on the lam again.
In December 1999, Korea and the US signed an extradition treaty, and the police formed a team to track Nam down. They scoured places where many foreigners lived and English hagwon until they recently discovered Nam’s prints on some garbage outside a residence in Gwangju-si, Gyeonggi-do.
After they arrested him, police learned he’d been teaching English at a countryside hagwon in Gwangju.
As CBS put it, “A terrible situation had developed in which Korean elementary, middle and high school students had been learning English from a first-degree murderer wanted by the FBI.”
Police said they plan to turn Mr. Nam over to the Americans following an extradition hearing.
The Yonhap report says Mr. Nam was a second-generation Korean-American.
Said Lee Jae-sul, the head of the Gyeonggi Police’s 3rd Foreign Affairs Division:
Nam came to Korea on a tourist visa and moved around as an English teacher, primarily in country hagwon where it was easy to hide… In the case of small-scale hagwon, they are employing unqualified foreign teachers on an hourly basis because it takes a lot of money to hire proper teachers.
Might we want to extend those criminal background checks to F visa holders now?
UPDATE: And here’s his FBI poster. “Solid,” eh?
UPDATE 2: Here’s more on how the bail was paid… and some of the shenanigans that went on with that. Sheesh.
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48 Comments
Isn’t there a provision in the law where those on bail are not permitted to leave the jurisdiction?
They might want to notify the person that lent Nam or his family the $1 million all those years ago.
I wonder if they’ll finally get their money back from the courts.
I’m sure Nam has earned the $1 million in other ways helping out his gang.
I think I’ve seen that poster before. In any case, whatever happened to his right to privacy has guaranteed by the Korean constitution? Oh, right…he’s American.
“Might we want to extend those criminal background checks to F visa holders now?”
The links to the article don’t work, but I’m guessing that he wasn’t registered and quite possibly living under an assumed name. Had he been registered with the Ministry of Education, it would have been quite easy to trace his whereabouts. Don’t forget, the Korean police had him in 1999, so they had a copy of his prints (besides, don’t they still fingerprint visa applicants? I know Immigration still did in the 90’s). So, a background check would not have really mattered.
I’m on my second E-2 visa now. I’ve never been asked for fingerprints by Immigration or anyone else in Korea.
#1 - Don’t believe there is, although a judge can order someone to surrender their passport as a condition of granting bail… Kinda looks like they dropped the ball on this guy.
Two words… Background checks. Wake-up and smell the coffee Korea.
#5,
Maybe, but I do recall that they were still fingerprinting E2 visa holders in the 90’s when the Korean government began accusing Japan of discrimination against its South Korean residents for doing the same thing.
# 8,
To be fair, it was that in conjunction with a lot of other things that rubbed the Korean government the wrong way regarding the zainichi. It wasn’t just the finger printing alone.
#4 - When did they ever fingerprint visa applications in Korea? Come to think of it, except the US, who does it now?
To the credit of the original Korean report, they didn’t identify Nam in the text or headline as a “foreigner” (though he is, technically)…
Korean media tend to slant a story in the following way: When a Korean-American does something good he/she is labeled “Korean” and when he/she does something bad that person is suddenly “American”.
#10 - It’s my understanding that back in the 90’s, they fingerprinted you when you applied for your ARC. Not sure when they stopped, I just know that they no longer do it.
I got fingerprinted at Mokdong in ‘97.
I’m pretty sure I got fingerprinted for my little residence card thingy, too. (I’ve been fingerprinted so many times, it tends to blend together, but pretty sure anyhow…)
# 10,
I think the U.S. probably has a pretty darn good reason for fingerprinting, given it’s concerns regarding homeland security.
#9,
Sure, but as one of those who had been treated as a criminal by the Immigration, I find it ironic nonetheless.
Korea fingerprints her own citizens. Take a look at the back of a 주민득록즉 sometime. If they were to ask for my fingerprints, I wouldn’t have any problem with it; it’s nothing they don’t ask of the general populace.
Well, a background check would not have really mattered in the case of that Canadian pedophile who was holed up in Korea either, because he didn’t have a criminal record. But that doesn’t stop them from requiring one does it.
#10 — Japan fingerprints all foreigners entering the country at airport immigration…
Immigration stopped fingerprinting E2’s in 2003(?) and yes any trip to Japan now requires your fingers being scanned (Or possibly a cavity search if you refuse.)
주민등록증. Man, I can’t spell today.
I’m so happy he’s not white or black!
It’ll probably work out like this: if he were a Korean-American entertainer, or rich, or Hines Ward, or successful in some other way, he’d be a Korean. Because he is a murderer, he’s an American. Imagine the irony if this is the case!
I think we can lay off the race thing for once. We’ve been over it ad-nauseum. It just goes back and forth and it’s now very tired. Let’s say he’s from the race, “thug”, phaelum, “douchebag”, sub-category, “desperate”.
How in the world has he been allowed to live among us for the last decade?
I was finger-printed in Jeonju when I commenced my first stint in Korea in April, 2003. Later that year, I had friends report they weren’t finger-printed.
“Because he is a murderer, he’s an American.”
Many Koreans were falling over themselves apologizing for the actions of Cho Seung-hui. Despite being a mass murderer, he was Korean.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/.....index.html
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/.....izing-for/
Seems most of the english teachers here in Korea are dopers, molesters, and murderers. Come to Korea to escape the law and act like assholes and act self important. You can run and try to hide but will get caught eventually!
Extradition treaty signed in 1999, team formed shortly afterwards, and Nam arrested more than 7 years later. Most excellent play of hide and seek, Dave.
Would the Korean taxpayers be better served if the police were disbanded?
I’m looking forward to the massive media backlash against all gyopos and the upcoming tightening of regulations for anyone seeking an F4 visa…
That’ll happen, right?
Wow, nasty look in his eyes in those mug shots.
I was fingerprinted in Daegu in 1997, when I applied for my ARC, but I don’t think I was ever printed again. I 6 new E-2s and 6 new ARCs since then.
Whether they tighten F visa rules is irrelevant though as he was here on tourist visas. Then again, that swirly-faced Canadian guy who diddled boys in SE Asia wasn’t on an E-2 but still caused the regulations to be tightened through his escapades.
Makes me wonder how he stuck around for 8 years though. Did he overstay his tourist visa or did the Korean Embassy and immigration not have info on him from the police?
*I HAVE HAD 6 new E-2s…*
finger printing is a cheap and easy way to keep a record on you.
unless they’re slapping a criminal record to you, where’s the beef?
I was finger printed for my recent standardized exam, and so did my brother.
I’m all for finger printing.
The only thing is, it has long been associated with criminals.
#15 - I don’t disagree with the US’s fingerprinting of foreigners… but those with a Canadian passport are not fingerprinted… which is totally against the lessons off 9/11…
#19 - Japan fingerprints all foreigners entering their country? As a Canadian tourist, again, no…
I guess what I’m trying to say is Korea isn’t the only country guilty of half-ass security measures that merely pander to public emotion…
Apparently, finger printing Canadians violates some international treaty the two countries signed.
The beef may be quite simple to understand in regards to Canucks anyway.
If such an agreement (not to finger print Canucks) outlined in this supposed treaty does exist, than Koreans have violated it on a regular basis.
Would this be a surprise? Nope, not one bit.
#25 Yeah sure, but he was corrupted by American society and culture. I heard that so many times from my students that I thought I was going to puke. Maybe it was a Daegu thing, I don’t know.
I also remember Hines Ward being called a Korean so gimme a break.
I like the way Korea doesn’t have background checks for employment, it tends to make sense in the vast majority of crimes. Especially in the US, we have a system where people convicted of drug-distribution/manufacture charges are prevented from ever getting a good job again, limiting their income, and thereby encouraging recidivism.
/rant
What do you have to say about that, baduk?
Interesting story about fingerprinting, I was on a flight a couple of months ago from Toronto to Hong Kong with a 1 hour stopover in Alaska to clean and refuel the plane. Even though we weren’t allowed to leave a holding area and didn’t pass through immigration, everybody on the flight, except Canadians, was fingerprinted and had their picture taken.
I got fingerprinted back in ‘97 and have not had it done since.
However, the whole fingerprinting thing has been useless anyway, since they have not been doing background checks. They did not get your fingerprints to run them through your home country’s or interpol’s database. None of that was ever done.
The only reason they got fingerprints was for if you committed a crime in Korea and left a print behind.
This whole fingerprinting for background checks has been a useless argument. If they had fingerprinted this guy, he would still have roamed free because they would not have bothered to see if he was wanted in another country.
That’s why they are asking for criminal background checks now because if they fingerprint us, they won’t do anything with that information.
#33– When was the last time you went to Japan? Just curious. The fingerprinting started fairly recently, in Novemeber of ‘07 I think. You hand over your passport, put your two index fingers on two sensors and look directly into a camera.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi.....991448.stm
ArmyDog - You forgot the ‘ I’m not one to generalize, but . . . ‘ disclaimer before your little diatribe against English teachers.
Heaven forbid people might think think you’re narrow-minded and prone to ill-thought out, wide-sweeping generalizations.
#41 - That article is dated May 2006… I was most recently in Osaka in October, so you may be right… I’ll know for certain in the next two weeks. An either case, it doesn’t bother me…
Re Dave’s #40. Please tell me you mis-wrote something in your post. I know they’ve gone insane, but I cannot imagine any reason-even an insane one-why transit passengers would be fingerprinted. Why would passengers even submit to such insanity if it did occur? Maybe I read you r post wrong?
#45
No, the US weirdly treats transit passengers the same as people entering the country. Numerous times I have changed planes in San Fran or LA before continuing to Canada, and each time we had no choice but to go ‘through’ US immigration. I remember one immigration official in San Francisco laughing as I answered his question “How long will you be staying in America?” with “See that gate over there? As long as it takes me to walk to it.”
one more thing to #45
“Why would passengers even submit to such insanity if it did occur? Maybe I read you r post wrong?”
The threat of the ‘full body search’ buys a lot of submitting to stuff. Because there’s some places you just don’t want a stranger’s finger!!
I didn’t realize I clicked onto the “When I got fingerprinted Thread.” Where is the discussion about heinous Korean-American murdering?