Thursday, November 26, 2009

Death threat leveled at ATEK

[Update: The Joongang Ilbo reports on this here.]

From the Korea Herald:
The president of the Association of English Teachers in Korea received an anonymous e-mail threatening his death and accusing him of committing sex crimes after rumors of a former member of ATEK were posted online.

Members of ATEK received two e-mails, one containing threats and another with an image apparently taken from a Naver Cafe post, but with ATEK president Greg Dolezal's picture added.

"I have organized the KEK (Kill White in Korea). This group of people is about 200 in anywhere in Korea," the e-mail read. "We will gonna start to kill and hit White (expletives) english spectrum from this Chirstmas. Don't make a fuss in there, just get out."
Not big on white Christmases, I guess.
Dolezal said he was taking all legal steps possible. Gimhae Police Department is investigating the case, and Dolezal said he was happy with how they were dealing with the situation.

"The detectives there and the foreign affairs liaison have been very cooperative and seem extremely keen to do something about it," he said.
It's good to know the police are being helpful. The article is a little muddled, but it seems, judging by the use of English, (ie. "Remember: Not all English teachers are bad, but this one is horrible" and "I hope you speak English") that a native-speaker of English sent AES information posted on an AFEK [and currently also an ATEK] member's blog earlier this year which listed alleged misconduct by a former ATEK member, though the 'former' status was not mentioned on the AES post. As the article tells us, this information was
posted on Anti-English Spectrum at 9:30 p.m. on Monday. The threatening e-mail was sent just three hours later.[...]
The threatening e-mail contained what appear to be screenshots from this post with a picture of Dolezal added, and made the above accusations against him.[...]
A post condemning the death threats and explaining that Dolezal had nothing to do with the allegations was put up after The Korea Herald contacted the AES manager about the threatening e-mail.[...]

The AES cafe manager would not provide The Korea Herald directly with a statement on the death threat e-mail. "However strained relations may be, we need to maintain basic human decency," the notice on the AES website read. "We cannot forgive the person who sent this threatening mail. If we find that person we will definitely report them to the police," it added further down.
The person that issued the death threat sent an apology -- after the notice was posted on AES -- but remained anonymous and said he was motivated by some English teachers' "immoral behaviors."

"He continued to use hateful language," said Dolezal of the apology. "He alluded to the fact that he's not going to stop."
Over at the Marmot's Hole, Peter Kim cut and pasted a message from Lee Eun-ung to innocent teachers and asked for their cooperation in turning in bad teachers, and in return, he says "I will devote myself to improving your image. I await your call.”

I guess he meant himself only, and not the rest of AES, seeing as when an informant decided to take him up on his offer, ATEK received death threats. I have to say, I really hope death isn't the only way foreign English teachers can improve their image.

7 comments:

K said...

Hooo boy! It's getting hot in the ROK! Actually, since the attempted gang-rape of a female teacher from NZ last week it seems things are getting pretty bad. What nice people Koreans are.

Mike said...

Whilst it is true that I am an AFEK member, I am also an ATEK member. Just thought I would point that out so that you can avoid any allegations of skewed reporting ;)

kushibo said...

From the Korea Herald:
The allegations against the former ATEK member first appeared in May this year on expat blogs, but were posted on Anti-English Spectrum at 9:30 p.m. on Monday.

Were all the materials posted to AES in Korean? Is it possible to see them? Maybe the writing style might give a clue to region of the writer.

Anonymous said...

For all its enthusiasm in expelling "illegal" foreign elements, this group is neither a police force nor a court of law. Simply put they lack the expertise and authority to pass judgments or execute sentences against individuals -- to continue to do so is extremely irresponsible because it creates a real danger of people being threatened, harmed or worse.

Anonymous said...

You can read about the assault in Itaewon here. http://youseok.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/assault-in-itaewon/

Brian said...

Youseok, knock it off.

Darth Babaganoosh said...

Any blog that is worthwhile reading has no need to be spammed all over the rest of the blogosphere.

That said, one can only imagine how much Youseok's blog must suck.