Gusts Of Popular Feeling

Monday, September 05, 2016

Video On Demand service for "I Want to Know That" temporarily suspended

Part 59: Video On Demand service for "I Want to Know That" temporarily suspended

On the night of February 21, 2005, Yonhap reported on another response to the SBS program:

Video On Demand service for "I Want to Know That" temporarily suspended

(Seoul, Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Ga-hui.
SBS TV's broadcast on the 19th of the "I Want to Know That" episode "Is Korea their paradise? A report on the real conditions of blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreign instructors" has had its Video On Demand (VOD) service temporarily suspended.

The production crew for "I Want to Know That" posted a notice on the viewer message board on the 20th reading "VOD service has been temporarily suspended; we hope for your understanding." Along with this it specified that "The sign for S Language hagwon which appeared on screen was not related to the broadcast."

The broadcast of "I Want to Know That" on the 19th reported on the various problems of unqualified English hagwon instructors such as having sex with Korean women and even smoking marijuana. After the broadcast controversy arose as over 1,000 comments were left by viewers.

PD Jang Gyeong-su said, "The suspension of VOD service has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the broadcast. It's just because there are a number of supplementary edits that need to be done." "There are often cases like this, and it will resume early next week."

As well, regarding S Hagwon, he explained, "Onscreen we chose a sign from among [several] unspecified hagwons and erased it, but some viewers posted online that it was connected to a specific hagwon and that the producers had clearly intended this."

Meanwhile, regarding that day's broadcast on the harmful effects of unqualified foreign English instructors, amid the netizens' forceful denunciations was an atmosphere in which calls for English instructors with proper qualifications appeared.

Regarding this, PD Jang disclosed that "Rather than suggest alternatives, for now reporting about the current situation comes first. Even though foreign instructors make up a large part of our educational situation, as the application of measures and laws is negligent, we judged that we should warn people about this first."

And warn the people they did! While Yonhap refrained from sensationalist recaps of the show like My Daily's, one can't help but notice how the government-run news organization described "having sex with Korean women" as a "problem" associated with unqualified English hagwon instructors. If the need for "supplementary edits" after the fact seems suspicious, later that day (February 21), the Donga Ilbo also reported on the suspension of VOD service, but offered another reason:

[Broadcasts] SBS 'Foreign instructor realities' VOD service temporarily suspended

SBS's broadcast on the 19th of the "I Want to Know That" episode "Is Korea their paradise? A report on the real conditions of blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreign instructors" (9:55 pm) has had its internet Video On Demand service temporarily suspended after it was pointed out that the identity of one of its informants could have been exposed.

This program blew the whistle on unqualified foreigners working in Korea as English instructors while earning money easily and dating a number of Korean women, which drew attention such as around 1,000 comments left by viewers. PD Jang Gyeong-su said, "The broadcast video is being re-edited so service will resume early next week."

Reporter Seo Jeong-bo

That "the identity of one of its informants could have been exposed" seems a more realistic reason. Perhaps they were concerned that someone might discover that they dubbed different voices over the image of the same person (hidden by a mosaic)? Likely not, since it seems viewers didn't notice, and much was made of one of these 'interviews' in which a guys says in broken English that he slept with 50 girls in one year. Still, while it may have been clear to the foreigners who watched it how problematic the episode was, the suspension of VOD service for several days suggests there were other problems as well.

Saturday, September 03, 2016

Netizen anger over 'foreign instructor' broadcast

Part 59: Video On Demand service for "I Want to Know That" temporarily suspended
Part 60: TV Program Warms Up Foreign Teacher Controversy

Part 58: Netizen anger over 'foreign instructor' broadcast

On February 21, 2005, Dalian - one of the online news outlets which had given a great deal of coverage to the English Spectrum incident a month earlier - reported on the furor caused by SBS's "I Want to Know That" broadcast:

Netizen anger over 'foreign instructor' broadcast

"From an instructor who provided marijuana to an instructor who sexually assaulted a middle school student"
An outburst of self-reflection after the broadcast of SBS's "I Want to Know That"

[Dalian reporter Lee Ju-yeong] Once again the problem of unfit foreign instructors' qualifications is heating up on internet message boards and arousing the anger of netizens.

As the SBS current affairs program '"I Want to Know That," broadcast on the night of the 19th, reported on the immoral behavior of some foreign instructors, netizen anger reached extremes. Even extreme reactions by some netizens poured out such as "Let's attack foreigners living in Korea."

On that night "I Want to Know That" exposed on a large scale the problems with unfit foreign instructors which Dalian and other public opinion [outlets] had brought up [previously].

SBS blew the whistle on: the reality of foreign instructors dating high school students and giving students marijuana; a case of a foreign instructor who sexually assaulted a middle school student; the reality of foreigners who choose to come to Korea because they can earn money and enjoy women easily.

Because of the broadcast, there was a flood of messages denouncing foreigners on the show's message board.

'armageddon99' wrote, "Why do white Americans, who graduate university and eat and live well in America come to Korea, at the edge of East Asia?" "They come to earn some money using [the fact that] they're white and are native speakers," he argued. "Of course, for many foreigners it might not be this, but mix in a sense of superiority over East Asians and it seems this is the result you get."

‘cherish516,' who lived abroad, wrote that "Frankly, in foreign countries Japan lives well and can't be ignored and China is a huge country with great influence and can't be ignored, but Korea is the easiest country," and requested, "[We] trust and sleep with foreign men who have had manners ingrained in them since childhood, unaware of their indecent thoughts, but don't shed tears or blood or have regrets."

'choi715,' who wrote that "The Republic of Korea feels like its rotting bit by bit," wrote, "Korea (our country) has no self respect regarding the nation. So white people think they're superior to us." "We need to establish an upright world view."

At the unfit foreign instructor anti cafe "Anti English Spectrum' (cafe.naver.com/englishspectrum.cafe) there was also an outpouring of critical posts by netizens.

‘qlrhkswk' wrote "They openly belittle our country, which invites those who cannot find decent work in their own country and even gives them a job, and think of Korea as a sexual paradise." "In any country there are the same loose women, but if such educators as hagwon instructors and bar owners use dirty business tactics to mobilize decadent activities, and if committing such acts leads to social problems, it's proper for it to be criticized," he argued.

‘yeats82,' who was so ashamed after watching the broadcast, said, "During the first half of the broadcast, I begrudged the sight of foreign white people being confident and so shameless as well as the sight of them breaking the law as they pleased, and then suddenly the scene changed and I couldn't control my rage at the sight of a "legal" Filipino worker being beaten and dragged through a back alley in a factory area." "The words of a woman, that 'All of society seems to have made a mistake,' rings in my ear."

Dalian fulfills its role here as self-appointed gatekeepers of the discourse on foreign English instructors, drawing attention to its role in previously highlighting "the problems with unfit foreign instructors" and quoting netizens to construct a problem of Koreans letting disrespectful foreigners run amok in Korea. Unsurprisingly, it quotes from Anti English Spectrum members, one of whom makes clear what one of the main contributors to the foreign instructor problem was: "loose women".

Friday, September 02, 2016

Frustration with low-standard foreign instructors: "Korea's pride damaged"

Frustration with low-standard foreign instructors: "Korea's pride damaged"

On the evening of the 19th the SBS current affairs show "I Want to Know That" episode "Is Korea their Paradise?" hurt Koreans' pride. Viewers who watched that night's broadcast, which reported on the rudeness and immorality of foreign instructors working in Korea, vented their anger, which went as far as suggesting attacking foreigners living in Korea.

The broadcast reported on foreign English instructors making fast money at Korean hagwons, universities and companies by faking their academic background, having sex with middle and high school students they met as students at hagwons, and using drugs like marijuana and even selling them to students.

As well, shocking testimony was televised such as "I think barely 5% of foreign instructors working in Korea have qualifications." "Korean women are the easiest sex partners to get." "I think of Korea as an ATM." That day the broadcast had 12.5% of viewers, which is extraordinarily high for a current affairs program in a late night time slot. Until now, on the 20th, there have been over 1000 comments left on the [show's site's] viewer bulletin board.

The anger expressed in cyberspace by viewers was aimed at foreign English teachers as a group. Among these there were not a few extreme opinions such as "Let's hunt foreigners," so there are even fears that hostility aimed at nearly [all] foreigners living in Korea will spread. Already at the beginning of the year, after the spread of images of foreign instructors having a lewd party with Korean women incurred the wrath of young netizens, a movement to expel English instructors developed on the internet and this will add fuel to the fire.

On this evening the broadcast also increased distrust towards English hagwons. That not even 5% of instructors had qualifications was shocking but as parents reeled in shock from reports on [their] habitual sexual assault and drug [use], one well-known foreign language hagwon unprecedentedly posted a notice on the 20th saying "This hagwon has absolutely nothing to do with the broadcast."

Along with this, voices are being raised in opposition to our society's English fever and sadaejuui towards white people. The abnormal, white-hot English education fever is leading to the mass production of unqualified English instructors and the illusion of white people who speak English as their mother tongue.

Hurt pride, criticism of sadaejuui towards white people, fears of spreading hostility towards foreigners, distrust of hagwons - quite a nice reaction to SBS's sensationalist broadcast. The next post will show how Dailian illustrated this hostility by quoting from netizens.

Thursday, September 01, 2016

Foreign instructor: "Korea is a cash and women dispenser."

Foreign instructor: "Korea is a cash and women dispenser."

"[He] gave a high school alcohol and marijuana and took off her top and..." (English conversation student); "A middle school girl could see he even made spelling mistakes..." (female middle school student); "Class preparation. Absolutely none. I just have a shower." (Illegal foreign instructor); "It's easy to pick up one or two girls a week. I've slept with 50 girls in a year." (foreign instructor); "I look at whether they are white and their appearance. These are all the qualifications they need." (Hagwon owner); "Hongdae. I go there to pick up women. The easiest place to pick up Korean women is Itaewon, and after that is Hongdae, and Apgujeong is the hardest." (Foreign instructor); "Korea is a country that doesn't realize that, even though [they're both] foreigners, it gives preferential treatment to white people and discriminates against Southeast Asians." (Filipino worker).

This is what appeared in interviews on the SBS show "I Want to Know That" broadcast on the 19th which dealt with the problem of illegal foreign instructors. These interviews showed plainly just how serious the illegal foreign instructor problem is.

As writing was posted at a foreign instructor internet site which regarded Korean women as sexual playthings, it went beyond the seriousness of the realities of illegal foreign instructors, which had become a social issue, representing just how sick the perception of our society and some people is.

The things shown on the broadcast that day, the evils of the conduct of those illegally hired, through means like faked backgrounds, as foreign instructors in Korea even though they didn't have any qualifications as instructors, were incredibly shocking. From sexually assaulting a high school girl to dishonest classes, there wasn't a part [of the broadcast] that wasn't a problem.

An instructor who took one of his high school students to his house and not only gave her alcohol but smoked marijuana with her and then took off her top; a foreign professor who, even though he was a bellboy with only a high school education, was appointed as a professor at a famous private university because he faked his background and, because he claimed he published an article that was well-known abroad, he even received 12 million won in research expenses; a foreign instructor who couldn't even spell words elementary school students would know; a foreign instructor who went to Hongdae clubs only to "pick up girls"... there are now crowds of illegal instructors taking over our nation's hagwons.

This phenomenon of illegal foreign instructors abounding has been caused by a mix of mistaken English-first-ism and the terrible delusion that as long as someone is a white foreigner they can all speak English well, hagwon owners and brokers who know only money even if [the teachers] are illegal, relevant government offices and organs which put the blame on a lack of personnel, our thoroughly dual consciousness regarding the west and the US versus Southeast Asians, and inadequate laws and systems.

Peter Park, a Korean American who graduated with high marks from a university in the US and, after working at a bank, came to Korea and works as an English instructor, showed our present hiring situation regarding foreign instructors when he complained, "Even though I have instructor qualifications and English skills, because my appearance isn't white I can't find a job at a hagwon. In the US I was discriminated against as an Asian, so does it make sense that in my homeland as well I'm discriminated against because of my appearance?"

As well, though they have legal work qualifications and are working at their workplace, just because they are Southeast Asians immigration officials will violate their human rights in ways like putting them in handcuffs, while, on the other hand, white people like Americans and Canadians are not cracked down on properly for marijuana, drugs, rape, or illegal employment, and this two-faced foreigner management system is also one reason why illegal instructors are taking over in our land.

Because of this problem, "Korea is a country where you can easily get cash and women," flies sarcastically out of the mouth of an illegal foreign instructor. To stop further ridicule like "Korea is a cash and women dispenser" from coming out of their mouths, not only must the law and system, but also our consciousness must be improved.

Bae Gung-nam, Multiculturalism Special Reporter

This is quite typical of the confusion seen in the Korean media between a news-reporting article and an editorial. One also has to appreciate the way in which My Daily serves up the most sensationalist aspects of the SBS broadcast - which was itself already incredibly sensationalist. Of course, My Daily had been peddling this tabloid take on foreign teachers for weeks and someone there must have felt some validation in seeing the site's accusations suddenly get a national spotlight. And then there's the fact that an incredibly sensationalist article calling for a more critical consciousness regarding white people was written by a "Multiculturalism Special Reporter." You can't make that stuff up.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Swimmergate redux

I'm not the only person - as this Swimming World Magazine article reveals - to hear the news of the kerfuffle in Rio involving drunk American Olympic swimmers and think of what happened in Seoul in 1988.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Comfort Women, nationalism, and the inculcation of anti-Japanese feeling

[Note: There are some disturbing images below.]

The image above was posted on Facebook along with a message in Korean asking for support for this to be the new 100,000 won bill; it received 31,000 likes last I looked at it (awhile ago now, admittedly). For me, the movie title 'How to lose friends and alienate people' comes to mind. Well, it's not the first time a "ruthless political terrorist" has been suggested for the 100,000 won bill (the difference being that the above An Jung-geun bill hasn't been officially suggested). Should something like this come to pass, however, it would be amusing if Japan issued a bill with Hideyoshi Toyotomi and the 'ear mound' that stands in Kyoto on it.

On a similar topic was this column by 'foolsdie' in the Korea Times, titled 'Are we still allies?' which complained about Donald Trump's comments on the US-ROK alliance before turning in another direction:

Then, Obama's recent visit to Hiroshima acted as a wedge. It's laudable for him to try to free the world of the fetters of nuclear weapons. But here, memories of Japan's brutal occupation remain fresh even after the passage of 70 years. Obama was perhaps too engrossed in the heat of the moment to say out loud that the nuclear attacks were the result of Japan's aggression and those killed and maimed were the victims of its failed leadership. Ironically, his visit has freed ultranationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ilk from the atrocities it had committed. Human rights are one of two pillars of U.S. foreign policy, with nonproliferation being the other. For sure, Obama's visit didn't help much on human rights.

Regarding "memories of Japan's brutal occupation remain fresh even after the passage of 70 years" (and I wonder why that is?), perhaps it's worth noting that most countries don't dedicate their education system and media to instilling historical bitterness quite like the Koreas, and thus not everyone believes that any given Japan-related news item is an occasion to dredge up memories of suffering. But I'll concede that it's a great way to keep people's minds off more important things. The Korean government itself apparently had no such complaints; a foreign ministry official said, "In such a historic speech, it is meaningful that he clearly mentioned Koreans, putting them on par with American and Japanese victims." Which might suggest that confirming victim status is a diplomatic victory. The problem is that it seems like aspiring to victim status is part of the Korean national identity, and thus there are some who would insist that Koreans' suffering should be elevated above everyone else's.

Michael Breen touched on the topic of Korea-Japan relations when he wondered if the comfort woman statue in front of the Japanese Embassy should be moved to the exit of Gangnam Station near where a woman was murdered because of her gender in May by a man who had been rejected by women. (Of course, he was mentally ill. It's interesting how when someone commits a crime that could be construed as sexist or racist (like murdering a foreign English teacher or a military doctor) they're often described as 'mentally unstable' or 'deranged'.) Breen describes

an interview with a prominent expert on prostitution. When I asked what she thought of the comfort women issue, she asked me to put my pen down so that she could rant politically incorrectly off-the-record.

"It's a joke," she said. "Pure hypocrisy."

We all know Japan was guilty of terrible things up to 1945, but, she said, this chauvinistic focus on justice for a historical matter is popular with Koreans because it conveniently distracts us from the real issue and our own continued guilt.

The real issue is the attitude in Korea of men towards women and human trafficking in the sex industry that operates on the scale it does as a consequence of that attitude.

That explained for me the odd fact that the comfort women story did not surface until 40 years after the war. People in 1945 were of course angry about the Japanese occupation but the comfort women did not appear important then, few even knew about it because male attitudes toward women and the trafficking of young women to service them hadn't changed with national liberation.

In a Korea Times column, Maija Rhee Devine (who will give a lecture for the RAS in September on the comfort women) asks "Are comfort women lying?" Her ultimate answer is no, but she points to criticism of the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, who are suspected of having "coached" the comfort women in some of their testimony.

In the spring of 2014 I visited the Museum of Korean Modern Literature in Incheon and came across a large exhibit on the first floor about the comfort women. There were many comic books presented with each page as a poster affixed in order along the walls. One, below, was titled '70-year-long nightmare':

As always (as I've noted before regarding films here, and here, and here) it all begins with an overly simplistic tale of happy-go-lucky innocent children picking flowers (hell, even Peppermint Candy 'begins' this way) before history (or an evil invader) bowls them over.

Another was titled "Where are we going?" - I've posted a few pages below:

One has to admire the design of this work, though I couldn't help starting to feel that perhaps the artists were depicting the women's suffering a little too enthusiastically. And then I saw this comic:

What follows (I chose not to photograph it) is an incredibly graphic depiction of the rape of a child. That she was a child was made clear by the size of her breasts and lack of pubic hair - it was actually that graphic - and I was appalled that something like that was on display for people of all ages to view at the museum. That said, I wasn't particularly surprised by it, considering the apparent approval there is for such depictions of suffering, as well as the lack of concern there has been regarding raising the low age of consent in Korea. It also brought to mind this photo (of a foreign woman) posted in public as a photo contest entry at the Boryeong Mud Festival in 2011, at least in terms of female nudity being thoughtlessly allowed in a public forum. Also worth remembering is a blog post by Oranckay back in 2004 when the Korean government went out of its way to block its citizens from seeing videos of the beheading of Kim Sun-il in Iraq. In that post he referenced a Korean feminist website (perhaps Ilda) which criticized the government for trying to hide images of the death of a Korean male from the citizenry while letting images of the bodies of prostitute Yun Geum-i (killed by a G.I. in 1992) and the two girls run over by a U.S. bridge-layer (in 2002) proliferate without comment. These images were used to mobilize resistance to the U.S. presence in Korea, and in thinking of this - and of depictions of the comfort women - I'm reminded of a passage in Sheila Miyoshi Jager's 2003 book Narratives of Nation Building in Korea : A Genealogy of Patriotism which, while it refers to anti-USFK campaigns, is also applicable in some ways to the comfort women issue (and is very applicable to Anti-English Spectrum):

Like Sin [Ch'ae-ho], chuch'eron [the (supposedly) North Korean-influenced anti-imperialist 'philosophy' of leftist South Korean students popular from the mid-1980s to the 1990s] sees the entire history of the Korean people as an epic struggle to overcome foreign domination and feudal oppression. The historian's task, in other words, entails the examination of the experience and legacy of the Korean people's struggle to preserve their "core" identity. [...] Perceived as a significant threat to this core identity, miscegenation became associated with a whole host of related themes about the defense of the social body - the retrieval of a superior "core" Korean identity in the name of a phantasmic Korean essence. The ability of the foreign male to penetrate (literally) the inner and inviolable sanctum of Korean women and to establish conjugal alliances with them was perceived not only as a threat to the viability of the family, but as an act that undermined the fundamental cohesion and identity of the Korean nation. Thus we find in Korea that those women who formed marriage alliances across racial lines were popularly perceived as being women of "loose" morals: prostitutes, bar hostesses, or entertainers. In fact the were represented as the polemical inversion of the idealized virtuous female associated with Korea's traditional romance narratives. By allowing themselves to be appropriated by the West, these women were simultaneously perceived as being victims of Western imperialism and faithless profiteers of American capitalism. Both pitied and despised, the whore thus became the symbol of the nation's shame as well as the rallying point for national resistance. (Pages 71-72)

One can't help but notice the role women other than the comfort women play in depictions of the colonial era. Years ago I posted excerpts of children's books depicting the colonial era, which depict certain events the publishers thought were important, such as the murder of Queen Min by Japanese assassins;

The torture of Yu Gwan-sun by Japanese police;

The suppression of the Samil protests by Japanese police;

The assassination of D.W. Stevens in 1908;

The assassination of Ito Hirobumi in 1909;

Also included was Yun Bong-gil's bomb attack in Shanghai in 1932. What we see there, of course, is that the (passive) women serve as victims to motivate the (active) men to carry out acts of ~~terrorism~~ justifiable revenge. Likewise, images like these posted in a public space seem to promote or justify a continued antipathy towards Japan:

Having been reading about Canada's participation in World War I lately (in Marching As to War: Canada's Turbulent Years, 1899-1953 by Pierre Berton) I couldn't help but remember the final stanza of "In Flanders Fields":

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

As is noted in the poem's Wikipedia entry,

[Paul] Fussell criticized the poem in his work The Great War and Modern Memory (1975). He noted the distinction between the pastoral tone of the first nine lines and the "recruiting-poster rhetoric" of the third stanza. Describing it as "vicious" and "stupid", Fussell called the final lines a "propaganda argument against a negotiated peace".

Is the propagation of such images as those above (especially in a manner meant to communicate to the young) not, in its own way, similar propaganda? This is not to say Korea is the only side at fault, of course - political realities in both Japan and Korea militate against solving the Comfort Women and Dokdo issues, and Japan's apologies (listed here - to 2005 - by Konrad Lawson) have often fell short of the mark (though a cultural tendency towards indirectness plays a part in this). Another elephant in the room is the effect on Japanese attitudes towards the war of the U.S. occupation of Japan and the American decision to preserve the imperial institution and protect the Emperor from prosecution during the Tokyo trials; as John Dower has put it, if the Emperor, in whose name the war was fought, wasn't going to be held responsible, why should anyone else feel guilty? One can only hope that, much like an ascendant Germany pushed the UK and France into an alliance before WWI, China's rise will have a similar effect at some point in the future. But as long as the Korean Gordian Knot - its division - remains in place, other problems related to mid-20th century history will be difficult to solve. An insistence in Korea on allowing displays (and popular culture) to portray Korea as a historical victim to inculcate historical bitterness in order to distract the populace and/or encourage a nationalist belief in Korea's moral superiority strikes me as something that will be counterproductive in the long run - even if it has its uses in the short term.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Interviewed in the Korea Times

Jon Dunbar at the Korea Times interviewed me a couple weeks ago about my time in Korea this summer (spent studying Korean at SNU, among other things), future plans, and plans for the blog. As I say in the interview, I plan to blog here when I find the time (and over the next few weeks I should have some time at last, particularly to reflect on the changes Seoul has undergone in the year I was away) and would never take down the archives here. Many thanks to Jon for posting the interview.

On a somewhat related topic, I got to chat with Colin Marshall while I was in town and enjoyed reading his most recent post at the Los Angeles Review of Books Blog about Michael Stephens' 1990 book Lost in Seoul and Other Discoveries on the Korean Peninsula. I haven't read it or Michael Shapiro's The Shadow in the Sun: A Korean Year of Love and Sorrow (though I'd heard of both) but have read Simon Winchester's 1988 book Korea, a Walk Through the Land of Miracles, as well as Ian Baruma and Pico Iyer's work on the 1988 Olympics and P.J. O'Rourke's writing about the 1987 election (all of which are well worth reading). Having read Colin's post, I'll have to find Stephens' book - it sounds like an interesting read.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

On Cheonggyecheon

Apologies to readers for the absence - but with classes done for the summer (other than a month of language study in Seoul) I'll try to post here more often.

A couple weeks ago the Guardian published a story about Cheonggyecheon 10+ years later by Colin Marshal which he interviewed me for - thanks to Colin for including me. Also worth reading by Colin is his article about 'English Cancer' (rather than English fever) in Korea.

On the topic of redevelopment the Joongang Daily published an article awhile back about Seoul's plans to "protect old districts" - but the map in the article makes clear just how much is still slated to be redeveloped...

(I've written about Cheonggyecheon here before, including about Time Magazine's glowing 2006 feature on then Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, following mayor Oh Se-hoon's redevelopment plans (2MB 2.0), then initially controversial 'Spring' sculpture at Cheongyecheon's source, the dislocation of former Cheonggyecheon merchants, and the appearance of Cheonggyecheon in old films.)

Monday, May 02, 2016

Thoughts on the low age of consent and light sentences

While trying to find out more about this incredibly messed-up case - about a couple who beat their teenage daughter to death and then kept her body in the house for the better part of a year - I came across the following Joongang Ilbo news story by reporter Kim Min-gwan, from September 16 last year:

A man in his twenties who even received the motel fee from a 13-year-old schoolgirl found guilty of prostitution

A man in his twenties who met a 13-year-old runaway schoolgirl for sex but argued he wasn't guilty and said that "The schoolgirl paid more of the motel fee so it wasn't prostitution" was found guilty.

Seoul Eastern District Court announced on the 16th that is that it [sentenced] Mr. Lee (22), who had been charged with contravening the Law for Sexual Protection of Children and Youth, to a one-year sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to attend 40 hours of sexual assault treatment classes.

Mr. Lee came to know A (13) on June 10, 2015 via a smartphone chatting application. Learning that A had run away and needed a place to sleep he promised, "If you come to my house, I can put you up," and the next morning he called her out to the Uijeongbu Station area.

When he met A, Lee said, "It's hot right now, so let’s go and rest," and took A to a nearby motel. The motel fee was 20,000 won but Lee had only 8000 won in his pocket. Lee asked A, "Can you pay a little bit?" and got 10,000 won from her and, after getting a 2000 won discount, paid the motel fee.

After they had sex, Lee said, "My parents came home early so I can't put you put you up," and left A and returned home.

In court Lee claimed that "Since I had never promised to put her up at my house and I paid 8000 won of the motel fee but A paid 10,000 won, it wasn't buying sex."

Subsequently he protested that "Since A looked 20ish in her chatting program profile photo, in which she was wearing makeup, I didn't think she was a minor."

However, the court said, "It doesn't make any sense that you saw her face and didn't know she was 13." "Seeming to offer to put up a runaway victim at your house and meeting [her], you acted to buy sex to satisfy your sexual desire, and the fact that even after that you left her and ignored the fact that she was penniless because of you makes the nature of the crime very bad."

It added, "Because she expected that the defendant would give him a place to stay afterwards, she readily gave 10,000 won." "The defendant fully acknowledged the fact that he promised to provide payment for things like a place to stay and that, expecting this, A acceded to sex."

A court official said, "The amount of money when providing payment for prostitution does not matter; if it's true that payment is provided, then [the fact of] prostitution is established."

After moving on from my amazement at how someone could be that much of a scumbag, what I found interesting is that the defendant was content to suggest that he'd had consensual sex with a minor (though he did try to say "she looked 20ish"). Back in mid-2013 laws were changed regarding sex crimes (see here and here), particularly against minors, but these clearly did not affect age of consent, which is still 13, though there are certain limitations, as pointed out in this case, as well as its follow-up, higher-court appeal ruling, as described over at klawguru.com. As is noted there, having sex with someone between the ages of 13 and 18 is not a crime unless you did so "by authority/deception" (though not by "position of authority"), while having sex with someone 12 years old or younger is "a crime (unless you had no way of knowing)." Even the latter part seems to have wiggle room (as it did in a case in Gangneung a few years ago where an instructor in an elementary school was initially let off by police for having sex with a 12 year old student because they were "in love" - until they found out he was also "in love" with a 15 year old former student).

In the case I translated above, the man was only given a suspended sentence, and in this case, from 2009, a man was sentenced only to 6 months in prison for paying for sex with an 11 year-old girl (and that 6 month sentence was seen as 'severe' punishment, despite the maximum sentence being 3 years). Most famously, in the "Na-yeong case," where a man raped an 8 year-old girl who "lost 80 percent of her colon and genital organs," the defendant had three years knocked off the maximum sentence of 15 years because "I was drunk" was considered a defense. What we see in these cases is that there doesn't seem to be any desire to give out maximum punishment to men who sexually assault or exploit children. One possible reason for this is described in a Joongang Ilbo editorial written when sex crime laws were changed in mid-2013:

The revisions are only a step forward, although a significant one. A bigger problem is our society’s misperceptions about sex crimes. According to a survey of policemen in small and mid-sized cities in South Gyeongsang, a whopping 53.8 percent said that sexual violence occurs due to women’s sexy dressing. Thirty-seven percent said it’s a woman’s fault when she is sexually attacked while drunk. That clearly illustrates our society’s generosity toward men’s sexual impulses.

You know there's a problem when the police answer this way (though perhaps we won't be too surprised by such attitudes coming from "small and mid-sized cities in South Gyeongsang," considering what happened in Miryang in 2004 - but it's sad to see these attitudes hadn't changed ten years later.

Daniel Tudor pointed out something that has been overlooked:

There have been attempts to raise the age of consent, such as that of then-Grand National Party lawmaker Kwon Seong-dong, who tried to lift it to 16 in 2012. I am mystified as to why it is still 13. With the ever-increasing concern over child protection, I doubt any political party would have anything to lose by throwing its weight behind a legal change here.

And yet this attempt to raise the age of consent went nowhere. As one ponders this fact in the light of lenient sentence after lenient sentence for those who sexually assault or exploit minors, one might be tempted to reach some rather unpleasant conclusions.