From ROK Drop
Courtesy of the Marmot’s Hole, the Chosun Ilbo has yet another article on the supposed "rise of foreigner crime" in Korea:
Recently, foreigner crimes have been sharply rising, including the murder/dismemberment of a Korean woman by a Chinese in Ansan, the “French Freezer Baby” in Seoul’s Seorae Village, and the 2003 hit on a Russian mobster in Busan.
In Busan alone, foreign crime has skyrocketed 250% over the last three years. Law enforcement agencies say some 27 foreign criminal organizations are operating in the port city, including the Russian mafia, Japanese yakuza, Chinese triads, and Thai and Bengali gangs.
The Chosun says the first step in preventing foreigner crime is effective control and punishment of illegal migrant workers.
I wish before people write these articles they would actually do some research about what they are writing about. As I have pointed out before foreign crime is appearing to rise because more foreigners than ever are living in Korea. However, if you look at the actual statistics from the Korean National Police Agency serious crime by foreigners is actually less per capita than the average Korean population, yet the Chosun has a graphic of a young Korean girl fleeing evil foreigners. Once again just another example of the sensationalizing of foreign crime in Korea.
Alleged pedophile who fled Korea arrested
Joongang Daily
Police in Thailand yesterday apprehended the English teacher who worked in Korea for a total of more than four years and fled shortly after being named Interpol’s most-wanted pedophile, news services reported.
The suspect, Christopher Paul Neil, 32, has been accused of sexually abusing more than a dozen boys in three countries and putting pictures of the assaults on the Internet with his face blurred.
Neil was arrested in a rural northern section of Thailand in the house of an acquaintance who allegedly helped arrange several sexual affairs with local boys, Thai police said, according to The Associated Press.
“Bingo! We’ve got him,” Wimol Powintara, major general of the police force told the AP.
Neil was on his way to Bangkok from Nakhon Ratchasima Province, about 210 kilometers, or 130 miles, away, police said.
Authorities have not yet decided whether Neil will be tried in Canada or Thailand. Canada has sex tourism laws allowing prosecution for crimes committed abroad.
Thai law enforcement agencies have issued an arrest warrant against Neil based on the testimony of a boy who said he was paid about $30 to have sex with him, police said.
In Korea, Neil started teaching at Kwangju Foreign School in Gwangju in August. He quit without any notice on Oct. 11 and fled Korea after Interpol posted his picture on their Website as a wanted criminal offender.
The Korean police have been investigating Neil, but nothing has turned up at this point, said a police official in Seoul who declined to be named.
Neil’s colleagues in Korea also say they can’t believe the man who was singing so happily at noraebangs, or karaoke rooms, was a pedophile.
The suspected sex offender also worked as a chaplain in Canada. Interpol has accused him of sexually abusing Cambodian and Vietnamese boys from the ages of 6 to their early teens between 2002 and 2004.
The hunt which ended yesterday started when police in Germany found about 200 pictures of a man committing sexual offenses against children. His face was digitally altered, but German authorities were able to restore the image enough to figure out the man’s appearance.
After circulating the picture, Interpol, the international police agency, drew hundreds of tips, including one from Amy Bowler, who knew Neil when he was teaching at a public school in Gyeonggi.
“I love teaching, can’t get enough of it really,” Neil wrote on a MySpace blog that has been identified as being his.
Read More about the same topic:
Canadian accused of internet sex crimes also under investigation in B.C
U.S. reopens Busan consulate
Joonang Daily
The United States reopened a consulate in Busan yesterday, nine years after it was closed, the U.S. Embassy here announced.
The consulate, however, will not issue visas for Koreans or provide consular services to U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. Embassy. That means Koreans in Busan must still travel more than 450 kilometers, or 280 miles, to Seoul to get a visa to travel to the United States.
“We will focus on providing information on business, overseas studying and immigration to residents in Busan and the surrounding areas,” said Byun Jung-hwan, senior advisor at the consulate.
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul will continue to provide consular services to Koreans, Americans and third-country citizens, the embassy said in a press release. The consulate has no plans now to offer visas to Koreans.
The original consulate in Busan, Korea’s second-largest city, closed in September 1998 when the U.S. government was cutting back on its budget.
In July of last year, the United States agreed to reopen the consulate at a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ban Ki-moon, then South Korea’s foreign minister and now the secretary general of the United Nations.
f you've ever lived in a small or old neighborhood in Korea you may have had the wonderful experience of the "bug truck." Most pesticides are banned throughout North america, but they are liberally sprayed in many Korean neighborhoods to combat mosquitos. Check out Mike in Korea's vid!
Here's a little taste of modern history in Korea.
10 Most Remembered
4 comments:
CPN has recieved a 3 and a half year prison sentence, because he pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor. The minor was actually a prostitute of sorts, and may have been offered to CPN by his parents. Heart renching that parents would sell their kids for profit. One of many forms of human trafficking.
INTERPOL made a big thing out of the two high profile pedophile cases, that it splashed all over the news media. They have since said that they were merely testing the water so to speak to see how effective using the media would be to say catch a terrorist.
He was popular at Gwangju foreign school. Parents were upset when he left, because their son's and daughters liked him. He couldn't stand Mrs holley because of her use of improper English. Had a very discerning insite into people, and their personalities. He didn't think much of the principal either. Thought he was a big dummy.
The general feeling amongst your common everyday Korean is that Holley's Korean citizenship is really a sham. His claiming to love Korea is considered to be a joke, and a way of hiding his real intentions. He chose to be Korean, because of the money making possibilities.
If he really sincerely loved the country, he would make his sons do their Korean military service. I think mixed blood children are exempt from military duties, but it should be a requirement for the children of foreigeners like Mr Holley, who are in the entertainment buisness.
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