N. Korea executes lesbians?
Well, glad to see North Korea’s cultural exchange program with Iran is going strong:
It has been reported that North Korea executed homosexuals, believing that they are influenced by capitalism.
“The North government publicly executed two lesbians for being tinged with capitalism not for demoralization,” Free North Korea Radio (http://www.fnkradio.com/) reported on Wednesday.
Clearly, they’re not Howard Stern fans north of the DMZ.
According to the Joongang Ilbo—nice accompanying image, BTW—both women were Korean-Japanese (a.k.a. jeil gyopo).
KJI’s grandson in Bosnia?
I’d say if Kim Jong-il is looking to get a better understanding of what his country will may look like after he’s gone, he’s probably a decade or two late here:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s grandson Han-sol has enrolled in the United World College in Mostar in Bosnia, a local newspaper reported Wednesday. UWCiM is an international school established in 2006 “with an explicit aim to contribute to the reconstruction of a post-conflict society.”
It is one of 13 worldwide United World Colleges established by a British foundation in 1962 to embody the ideas of Kurt Hahn, a German educator who stressed the need to help students understand different cultures, religions, and values through school life.
Update: The Chosun’s Korean site has more. Why do I want to reach into the monitor and slap this kid? Not surprised he’s Jong-nam’s kid, though.
That’s impressive
Busan has got a real architectural monument in its new Busan Cinema Center. Can’t wait to see it.
Godae med students get jail and IDs released
The three Korea University medical students who sexually molested their classmate earlier this year have not only been sentenced to jail time (1 year, 6 months—2 years, 6 months), but their IDs will be released on the Internet for the next three years. The court clearly didn’t like these guys, giving them tougher sentences than the prosecutors asked for. Good.
Soju, buggery and the lash
I guess nobody should be surprised that it’s the ROK Navy that’s the roughest of Korea’s three services.
‘Kim Jong-il’s and China’s Least Favorite Boat Comes to Korea.’
Speaking of the navy, I thought the headline here was pretty cute.
{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
How is a prison sentence less than 3 years even appropriate for a rape charge?Shouldn’t this be a bit closer to the decade than not? Especially when one of them aggravated the situation with the “Isn’t she a complete slut?” survey?
From what I understand about the case, she was not actually raped. And it seems if anything, people are surprised they got as heavy a sentence as they did:
http://media.daum.net/society/others/view.html?cateid=1067&newsid=20110930112152129&p=ned
Man, that movie is making waves…
It’s typical of korean courts, to allow rapists off very, very lightly.
Just this week, a court sentenced four 20y.o.’s to only three years in prison and four years of probation for gang-raping a 12y.o. girl over a 4-hour period.
Just shocking, but not unusual for Korea – http://dok.do/ep4O5R
Meanwhile, Lesbians in NKorea get executed…. – even though their “passion” was consensual.
I wonder if these rapists will get the same treatment in jail that they would get in the states? I’m satisfied that judge did his job appropriately.
#1 and 3 – light punishment for rape or indeed many serious crimes is quite common in Korea. In reference to the gang rape of the 12 y.o.: as far as I know, there’s no statutory rape law (or it’s not enforced) in Korea, and the fact that the victim didn’t resist her attackers almost to the death is a mitigating circumstance for the rapists — the court’s reasoning being that the victim probably didn’t consider her violation to be so “bad”. Yes, such is the reasoning of Korean judges!
Then there is also the drunken defense, where you can avoid or lessen your punishment by saying you were too drunk to “remember” your actions.
I love Korea but this is a terribly rotten, disgusting aspect of the society there.
Anwar al-Awlaki is dead!
“N. Korea executes lesbians?”
Kim Jong-hun starting to feel threatened by Kim Jong-chol?
There is a law however, that states that you cannot have s%% with a child under the age of 13 years. (I changed that so I wouldn’t get moderated).
Yet, these guys did it for 4-hours and got off pretty light.
It’s true that the age of consent is 13 in Korea. But if the court (in its twisted logic) is satisfied that the girl didn’t resist “enough” or if it deems that the girl “knew” what she was getting herself into, then they consider the severity of the crime to be lower. Also according to your link/article, the judge let the guy off easy because the defendant supposedly didn’t know the girl was only 12 years old…
“They were not subject to the law on sexual violence criminalizing rape of those 13 years of age or younger. The judge wrote that ‘Mr. B, unable to tell that A was only 12, committed his acts because he did not think she was 12′.”
That’s Korea for you.
It’s hard, nay, almost impossible to imagine that life in the ROK Navy is tougher than, say, life in the South Korean Marines or Special Forces, unless the ROKN numbers actually include those for the Marines. It’s also surprising since both the ROK Navy and ROK Air Force have traditionally been seen as softer, more gentile services in which to serve, which is why, the last time I checked, the tour of service for the Navy and Air Force under Koran conscription was longer than that for the ROK Army.
Maybe one of MH’s paralegals can weight in.
Speaking of the Navy, Prof. Moon Chung-in has a very thoughtful essay in this month’s Korea Focus (translated from the original in the Samsung, er, JoongAng Ilbo) on the new Navy base in Jeju.
Right-wingers will be pleased at his correcting the record on the background of Jeju’s status as a “peace island” and the non-role of the U.S. Navy in the decision to proceed with the base.
Lefties will be pleased at his call to stop mischaracterizing peace activists as North Korea flunkies.
I won’t call it must-reading, but here it is:
http://www.koreafocus.or.kr/design3/society/view.asp?volume_id=114&content_id=103712&category=D
One word about the Korea Focus. It is a really good source of information for non-readers of Korean who want to know what the Korean establishment is thinking. It is very conventional and tilts decidedly to the right. (Most of its stories are translations of essays that appear in the Pravda-esque trioka of the JoongAng, Chosun, and DongA dailies. I think they have a token essay each issue from the Hankyoreh, and even that’s usually on something other than politics, usually Korean culture.)
The Korea Focus is strictly conventional wisdom bordering on propaganda, but if you’re new to Korea and haven’t yet picked up the language, it’s invaluable.
DLB
PRC is heading toward war against neighbor countries, Vietnam, the Philippine. Maybe with Taiwna, Korea, Japan, and eventually the US too.
中 남중국해 전쟁론 파문: http://news.nate.com/view/20110930n20666?mid=n0502
I agree with this 베플(best reply) of the news article: “PRC is quite opposite to the US considering both are superpower in the world. Americans tries to make other nations allies of the US. This Chinese sekis go around making conflicts all over.”
I believe Koreans need a naval base in Jeju, preventing the ruthless Chinese navy from sticking out to the Pacific ocean. Considering Chinese rented NK harbors on the side of Sea of Korea, Uleungdo naval base is also needed, not only to block the Japanese threat to Dokdo. Koreans need the naval bases for the “peace of Jeju and Korea.” What’s the point our territory is trampled by invaders and having a beautiful scenary?
I am definitely unhappy about the rape law in Korea, but this is not rape — it’s sexual assault, and the precise act was to fondle breasts and taking pictures while the woman was passed out. 1.5-2.5 years sound ok.
This doesn’t exactly pass the wife or daughter test, does it? Or perhaps you’re just extremely generous and forgiving to those that hypothetically carried those “precise acts” out on a loved one? It wouldn’t bother you to see the predators that sexually assaulted an incapacitated family member back on the streets in 18 months, looking for more victims and thinking up new precise acts?
Would it be fair to say your conclusion is unsurprising given your previous, vigorous support for physically assaulting young girls in response to rude speech? Perhaps a pattern is emerging regarding your views toward the fairer sex?
Or is it inappropriate to draw that line? More than anything, I want to be fair.
True, that was a sentence for sexual assault, not rape. In the end, despite the woman’s allegations, they did not pursue a charge of rape, possibly due to a lack of evidence. Still, this does not mean that a rape did not actually occur, but only that they were not charged with it.
DLB, I understood the tour of service requirement merely reflected the necessary return on training. Notmuch use if a pilot cops out half way through his training, cos his two years are up.
Actually, that case involving the gang rape of the 12 year old may be worse than it appears – I think there may be a mistake in the translation. The article says:
“4명에게 징역 3년에 집행유예 4년을 선고했다”
Does that not say, “4 people were given a 3 year jail sentence suspended for 4 years”? As in, the appeals court only gave them a suspended sentence?
I believe if it was written like this –
“4명에게 징역 3년, 집행유예 4년을 선고했다”
- (with the comma, minus the 에), it would be “a 3 year jail sentence and 4 years of probation.”
Can anyone confirm that?
And it’s strange the ‘age of punishment’ (it’s not really called ‘age of consent’ here) wasn’t invoked either, considering she is under 13, something which should also make any rape charge far more serious.
#15 – that’s why I’m aghast at the judge letting the main defendant off easy, and the reason he didn’t invoke the “age of punishment” law is because “…The judge wrote that ‘Mr. B, unable to tell that A was only 12, committed his acts because he did not think she was 12′.”
@characteristic
I thought it was because the judge thought the 12 year old didn’t “resist enough”.
I mean, you know, as equally horrid if not more.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA thanks for the laugh pal.
It does. That sentencing makes so little sense that I feel like there has to be more to the story, perhaps a little bit like the “Good Samaritan bus driver” case. But unlike the bus driver case, I can hardly think of additional facts that would make this more understandable. I am doing some research on it, but my general sense is that laws on sexual assault in Korea now is an outrage that needs a massive reform.
Pretty good indicator. Anyone with a decent handle on the callous treatment of rape victims by the Korean police and justice system would look at that sentence and say “Yep, par for the course”
THEkorean, on the other hand, defaults in the opposite direction, as if it’s an outlier and not the norm, thereby putting his knowledge level of that subject slightly below that of an expat in his first week at a hagwon.
Given your publicly stated support for lenience towards sexual predators who assault unconscious females, and for socially sanctioned physical violence against teen girls, I don’t think your laughing means as much as you think it does.
Given your baseless slanders based on a sentence fragment, I fail to see the need to respond to your repeated, easily disprovable lies. Fuck off, snake.
Given the positions you advocate, I can see why “hahahahaha” and ad hominems are a preferrable route.
And if they were so easily disproven, you would do so rather than obfuscate and laugh. The link to your thread-long advocation of “justified, socially sanctioned violence” against teen girls for the horrendous crime of speaking rudely is readily available, and I’ll let others decide if being “ok” with an 18-month sentence for sexual assault of an incapacitated woman qualifies as lenient.
Using a Korean standard — a standard by which ZERO jail time for gang-raping a child is apparently “ok” — then I suppose you could argue 18 months is not considered lenient. Not exactly a standard you’d want to wear on your sleeve though, innit?
By all means though, counselor, get to disproving. Or just call names. Continue to squirm and avoid. Whatever.
I don’t know what the argument is, but I am with TheKorean.
IHBB – you’re too vituperative and spiteful.
Have a nice day. ^^
Helpful hint: When you open your comment with a bold declaration of your ignorance on the topic, no one gives a fuck about anything that follows.
Have a nice day!
QED!
i don’t know what the argument is either bro. but ihbb generally has that annoying, snarky tone you see everywhere these days. the gawker site is a good example. it’s common among annoying hipsters and leftoids but it’s increasingly infecting normal people. it’s like an annoying brew of sarcasm, self righteousness, whining. like a bratty, sarcastic teenager.
Jesus. A guy who uses “bro” more often than “the” in his comments just tried to characterize someone else as acting like an annoying teenager.
Self-awareness isn’t really your strong suit, is it bro?
Hey bro? You know what annoying teenage douchebags love to do more than anything?
Call everyone “bro” and make constant juvenile jokes about fags/queers/homos/fudgepackers/etc.
Sound familiar, bro?
must’ve really hit a nerve bro.
interesting link IHBB, I knew he advocated tough love to his own children, but hadn’t realised that exrended to anyone younger.
Also, interesting double standard since he has no hesitation in using englush banmal to his elders when out of reach of a slap.
You mad bro? Ron Paul’s impending failure got you down? You accidentally delete your prized .wmv of Loose Change?
I’ve already bought a special slapping glove for my next trip to Korea. Just waiting for TK to give me some guidelines about exactly what situations I’m authorized to hit young girls in, and more importantly, how hard I can hit them.
Perhaps an email to his “Ask a Korean” email address would get us some answers. Maybe a 5000-word detailed essay laying out just how and when we can implement our societal duties? What do you say TK? I’d prefer not to leave any marks on a 12-year old girl’s face, but I’m willing to if that’s what society requires and sanctions.
yep definitely hit a nerve.
Jashin, is that the gay nerve? Cause I’m gay? Your subtlety is sometimes too difficult for this bro, so can you spell it out for me? That I’m gay because you hit the gay nerve?
Gay? Bro?
about how you sound bro.
Jashin, will you gay-marry me?
We can get Ron Paul to officiate, hold the ceremony at Ground Zero, and dress up like your favorite Japanime characters. It’ll make all your dreams come true. Except the gay part.
How’s that sound, sailor?
see what i mean. the annoying, womanish snark. all the leftoid manginas sound like that.
I’ve finally found the holy grail, which explains all about Jashin’s homophobia projections and Ron Paul fixation all in one.
Enjoy.
the only thing that explains is that leftoid manginas like you get off on sexually harassing dignified old men.
Must’ve really hit a nerve, bro.
yeah your nerve bro. you’re the leftoid mangina who gets off on sexually harassing dignified old men.
Yep, definitely hit a nerve.
yep definitely your nerve bro. you tried to make a lame joke but ended up exposing your nerve. that you’re a leftoid mangina who gets off on sexually harassing dignified old men.
Bro, that nerve is fully exposed, bro. Best man up and quit acting like such a whiny queen.
yep your nerve is fully exposed bro. that’s why you’re so defensive bro. because now everyone knows you’re a leftoid mangina who gets off on sexually harassing dignified old men.
It’s okay bro. Looks like Ron Paul only got a little gay dust on him. He might enjoy Broadway musicals a little more but he probably hasn’t gone full power-bottom. Yet.
yeah it wasn’t extreme enough to satisfy your sick taste, was it bro.
“Odds and Ends” is a bad category because it mixes up topics of discussion and forces people, for example, to sort through inane comments on homosexuality to find comments on the ROK navy.
don’t understand, nobody is forcing you to find comments on the ROK navy, thats your own thing.
IHBB,
Please don’t lower yourself that level – I forget the Korean adage, but it’s something about lying down with bros and getting up with a whacked-out sense of importance in what you think is important, aside from being a homophobic, paranoiac boy who thinks ‘First’ is an accomplishment.. Anyway, I hope to see better from you (again).
What Cactus said.
Please understand my unique situation and consider the bottle and a half of wine, which should absolve me of any and all responsibility.
#51,
I’ll have to confer with the Sonsaengnim @ #50, but I should think that posting while drunk will get you the Sperwer Super Pass.l
note that ihbb bizarrely started talking about homosexuality in response to my comments which had nothing to do with that subject.
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