Hidden camera images in Sunday Seoul magazine in 1971

AFP correspondent Hawon Jung, who has been covering the large anti-molka (hidden camera porn) protests by women, wrote today:

This playful poster made by South Korean police for its new online campaign to help curb spycam porn crimes seems to sum up how the police view the widespread crimes causing so much fear & anxiety among women : funny, laughable pranks committed by pink-cheeked man-boys. pic.twitter.com/uAQlyrxMwX

— Hawon Jung (@allyjung) August 9, 2018

The incident which prompted the protests involved police zealously hunting down a woman who posted an image of a male nude model online, in comparison with their lax pursuit of men who do the same to women.

I've been organizing my research taken from weekly magazines from 1968-1971 like Sunday Seoul and, oddly enough, today I came across the following photos from the March 21, 1971 issue of Sunday Seoul. The text reads:

When women are alone…
Men are presented with magic in moments of defenselessness when women are not concealed or unadorned. Women with childish cuteness and sincerity are charming, and in those women-only times and places they slightly turn their heads.
What are the impressions of women who see photos of moments like these?

The photos presented are of a reclining co-ed in her rented room reading on a Sunday, a woman doing calisthenics, and "'Oh my oh my' screams the friend behind [the woman] who absent-mindedly ties her shoes."

Sunday Seoul (and Weekly Kyonghyang) began in the fall of 1968 and for over a year featured nude photo spreads (of mostly Western women in WK and Korean women in SS). By mid-1970 the nude centerfolds had disappeared from Sunday Seoul and were replaced with nude paintings of women, both Korean and Western, modern and classic.

Even Matisse. Sunday Seoul, May 31, 1970.

This is the context in which the photo spread above appeared. As I noted here, even Korean newspapers reprinted photos (from AP) of Western women in swimsuits (though I incorrectly suggest Koreans did not wear bikinis like in the West; my research has found that bikinis were much more common in Korea in the 1970s). While Sunday Seoul is quite important for its documenting and even sponsoring of youth culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it's quite clear that men were the target audience. A friend once told me that he got a Sunday Seoul magazine from friends for his birthday when he was in his teens in the 1980s, and that it was used for "masturbation purposes."

While the photo spread above is clearly shot with models and does not suggest that (male) readers photograph women in the same way, what is one to make of this photo spread highlighting women's legs from the August 15, 1971 issue of Sunday Seoul?

This is merely the first of four pages of similar photos. I have my doubts that these photos were shot openly, making them, essentially, molka photos.

I really don't know if such photo spreads would have been in mainstream Western magazines at that time, though it certainly wouldn't surprise me. The Weekly Kyonghyang regularly reprinted Western cartoons, including many like this:

From the January 21, 1970 Weekly Kyonghyang 

The fact that women have breasts was fodder for many cartoons. That images like these no longer appear in mainstream media is a reminder that some progress has been made in the last 50 years, even if it might not always feel that way.

Update:

It slipped my mind that the police have been concerned with at least some men taking hidden camera photos, as this July 29, 2013 Munhwa Ilbo article, titled "'Foreigners [caught for] hidden cameras' increase sixfold over four years - concern videos may be leaked overseas," reveals (see here for a similar story in English). It mentions a foreign teacher who took upskirt photos (but not at a beach, which was the focus of the story) and illustrates the article with an image of an English teacher behaving deviously (though not as deviously as the teacher in the image here, illustrated by the same artist).

Note the difference between how he is illustrated and how the naughty Korean man is illustrated in the offending police poster (which does not appear with the tweet linked above for some reason):

From 2006 - There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

Part 1: Foreign instructors earn money, are 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs
Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'
Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’
Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet
Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees.
Part 6:Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS
Part 7: There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

On November 1, 2006 BreakNews published another story about foreign English teachers. This marked the last such story written by Sin Yeon-hui with contributions by and interviews with Anti-English Spectrum's leader, "Mr. Kim" (Lee Eun-ung), and so this is the final entry in this series.

---------------------------

"There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!"

[Exclusive report] A former gangsters who committed murders sneaks into Korea and works at a well-known language hagwon and school

Reporter Sin Yeon-hui

[Exclusive confirmation] Native speaker blacklist "caught by NIS information network"

'Inside Story' has published 7 in-depth reports on the shocking realities of unqualified and low-quality native speaking instructors. This paper has reported on such shocking facts as foreign instructors' drug parties, their sexual denigration of Korean women, diploma forgery of diplomacy, and spreading nude photos of female pupils on the internet.

After this paper's exclusive report (in issue 432) on the blacklist of native speaking English instructors in particular, this story was reported by domestic broadcasters and media, causing a huge stir.

Among the native speaking instructors included on the blacklist was one who had committed murder in his home country and had fled to Korea, where he worked as an English instructor and a criminal. Amid this, the stir [over foreign instructors] expanded when on October 23 a large number of English hagwon native speaking instructors were caught for taking drugs.

It was shocking that included among them was an instructor from A English Hagwon, which is affiliated with a top school, which this paper confirmed came as a result of its news gathering.

"This case of the English instructors caught for drugs is just the tip of the iceberg," said Mr. K, who is leading a movement to track down unqualified and low quality native speaking instructors in Korea and expel them. "The ongoing investigation by police should proceed. Since there are a lot of native speaking instructors with criminal records, you can't rule out the possibility of a murder happening," he said, pointing out the serious situation of native speaker instructors who have lost all morality.

Police: "There are 80 people listed in a book belonging to an illegal employment broker"

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Department drug trafficking team arrested 15 people, including 12 who had taken drugs and taught English in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do area elementary and middle schools, neighbourhood offices, and well-known English hagwons, among whom were foreign instructors and a Korean American criminal who had been deported, as well as 3 other people including broker Mr. Kim and his wife and a hagwon owner who had hired the instructors. 7 were booked for drug use.

The number of foreigner [typo - 'foreign language'] hagwons has been steadily increasing, from 5.232 in 2004, to 5,689 in 2005, to 6,058 this year [2006].

As the number of English language institutes increases like this, hagwons are competing to recruit native speaking instructors. Amid this, unqualified native speaking language instructors who are not properly verified pose as instructors and professors at large-scale hagwons and schools.

Now 12 native speaking instructors have been caught by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Drug Investigation Team for taking drugs. It has been disclosed that they habitually took drugs in Seoul and the Gyeonggi-do area.

Police arrested 15 people, including an unregistered employment agency which introduced the instructors to hagwons and the owner of a hagwon which hired them, and booked seven of them.

Investigation into drug use and illegal employment expanded

Police arrested five others, including naturalized citizens and American and Canadian foreign instructors, who habitually took methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.

The police said, "Due to differences in culture and law, foreign English instructors and those deported from the US [hereafter "the deportees"] staying in Korea can easily be exposed to drugs, so we will expand our investigation into whether they are taking drugs."

Police are investigating the ledger, bank accounts and computers seized from Kim in order to determine the role of the broker and the deportees. Police said that Kim played a lead role in the illegal employment of the deportees as English teachers, and that there is a list of about 80 English instructors in the ledger seized from Kim.

In addition, the police are trying to secure additional suspects by comparing the ledger and bank accounts in relation to statements that Kim interacted with the deportees, and will request that Kim's deleted computer be restored for use in the investigation.

In general, in the case of Korean drug offenders, drug trafficking routes are carefully traced starting from the suspect's phone call history, but in the case of foreigners they are vague and form in places where foreigners gather, drug squad officials explained.

For example, suppose that drugs could be bought from an obscure dealer with a common name like Brian in an area with lots of clubs where mainly foreigners gather, like Hongdae or Itaewon. During close questioning, when police ask people who have been caught with drugs "Where is the dealer?" they can answer "He left the country, I don't know him." In other words, this means it is difficult to find a supply route with such obscure dealers.

The seven deportees and five foreign instructors who were arrested for drug taking all obtained and used at home marijuana or meth on their own. Because they were not all in the same group, they were separately arrested over two months, and each of them bought drugs through different sources, police said they have yet to find where they got the drugs or the supply route.

Among the 15 arrested, those who are not involved in drug abuse are three such as the president of c and the husband and wife of broker Kim. To summarize the suspects in this case, the brokers are divided into nine illegal immigrants who are working illegally through a couple of brothers, namely, Koreans and foreigners.

Top class English language instructor, belonging to Korean gang
Many of the native English speakers 'Drug · Sex · Theft addict'

The starting point of the case was the group of deportees, centering on the broker Kim and his wife and branching out to Mr. K and his live-in girlfriend, Mr. Han and Mr. A, Mr. N, and Mr. C. Each of these people was illegally found a job by Kim and his wife, and Mr. K and his live-in girlfriend, Mr. Han and his hagwon coworker Mr. A took drugs. They were all arrested in September and October due to persistent tracking by the police.

Hagwon owners who hire an unqualified English instructor are subject to criminal or administrative penalties. Police explained that hagwon owner C was arrested in this case because he hired a tourist visa-holder, rather than a work visa-holder, as an instructor, while other hagwon owners who hired the deportees or foreigners who did drugs were not subject to police criminal penalties.

A violent offender with a gang background

According to police, the arrested native speaking instructors had obtained green cards as children but were deported from the United States for gang activity, possession of firearms, theft and robbery, or the manufacture and sale of narcotics.

The broker, Mr. Kim (44), who was also deported for illegal gun possession in May 2000, set up an employment agency to find English instructors jobs in Korea for other deportees, and after forging US college diplomas arranged instructor jobs for unqualified people.

It was discovered that those who became instructors with counterfeit diplomas were habitually taking drugs and then teaching students. As well, it turned out that the middle schools, academies, and district offices that hired them did not properly confirm whether or not they had qualifications due to the lack of instructors caused by the English learning craze.

Police are planning to expand investigations into whether or not those deported from the US and native speaking English instructors at hagwons in Korea have done drugs.

The past criminal history of those arrested is truly serious.

The suspect K belonged to the notorious ethnic Korean gang 'K.P.B.' in the United States and was convicted of violent crime such as robbery and deported, while Mr. Han, A, N, and C were part of the L.A. gang L.G.K.K. and were deported for producing and selling drugs, use of illegal firearms, and first degree burglary. It was also discovered that Mr. Lee, an American citizen, was a member of the Korean gang 'cys.'

The suspect Mr. K was arrested for violating the Narcotics Control Act in 2004 and he left work as a public service worker at a district office and the broker Mr. Kim forged a diploma and used his illegal job-finding company to get him and his live-in girlfriend, who was an American citizen, jobs as instructors together at C English hagwon. They were arrested on charges of smoking marijuana in their home.

Ex-cons and high school dropouts worked as hagwon and school instructors
Immigration: "Attaching a foreign criminal record infringes on personal information"

The suspect Mr. K was the starting point for the 15 people arrested. According to the police, in March of this year, after receiving intelligence about K from the NIS, they started an investigation and found the district office where K had worked as a public servant, but he had already left that workplace.

At the end of the police investigation, K was arrested in September, but in the process of investigating his background police wondered how K, who had dropped out of high school in the US, was able to work as an English instructor, which ultimately revealed the truth about the brokers Kim and his wife and the other deportees.

The police investigation found that K's girlfriend was also a US citizen and like K had been able to illegally find work as an instructor at A English hagwon with the help of the broker Mr. Kim. However, Mr. K's wife was working as an instructor on a tourist visa rather than a work visa, and as a result, the owner of A English hagwon's Anyang branch, Mr. J, was arrested for violating the Immigration Control Act.

A English hagwon is considered one of the leading foreign language academies in Gangnam, represented by well-known Korean English instructors. K was working at Anyang branch of this institute. A English hagwon Anyang branch director J hired K's girlfriend as an instructor even though he knew she was in Korea on a tourist visa. In addition, he hired K without even checking his identity despite him submitting to the hagwon a fake diploma with a third party's name on it, and he did not register them as instructors at the education office.

Another suspect, Mr. Han, was deported in 1998 due to possession of an illegal gun, and after coming to Korea was arrested for violating the Narcotics Control Law in 2006 and served a sentence, but he was working as an instructor at a well-known hagwon.

Mr. Han was arrested for habitually smoking marijuana at a his lodgings, which were provided by B English hagwon in Ansan, with fellow deportee and co-worker Mr. A. In Mr. Han's case in particular, at the time of his arrest, the homepage of the hagwon's head office showed that he had been selected as "Excellent Instructor of the Month" from among instructors nationwide. This is shocking in that it proves there is a serious hole in the management of the English instructor by English hagwons.

B English hagwon in particular is operated by famous broadcaster Mr. L. Mr. L is a famous English instructor who is active on TV and radio.

The broker Mr. Kim and his wife were also deported on charges of using an illegal firearm in 2000.
From July 9, 2003 to October this year, Kim operated an unregistered employment agency called "one and one English" in Namyangju City.

He advertised on a foreign English instructor job site and recruited unqualified English instructors. Most of them had been in gangs in the US or deported on charges of violent crime, and by recruiting them and placing them and foreigners in places like hagwons they earned through fees the sizeable income of 300 million won.

Kim forged college diplomas for himself and the other deportees and submitted them to schools, academies, and ward offices, and Kim himself taught students at two middle schools in Seoul's Yangjae-dong and Seongsu-dong neighbourhoods, as well as at a district office.

According to the police, the middle schools and ward offices that hired them did not even confirm the authenticity of the diplomas that had been submitted to and registered at Kim's employment agency, and Kim took part in widespread exchanges with the deportees and arranged regular meetings with them, constantly managing them.

In other words, as a group the deportees and those illegally hired as English instructors kept up the act. In an incident in May when arrests were made by Mapo police for manufacturing methamphetamine using cold medicine, Kim also provided funds and the main culprits of the incident were found to be deportees working as English hagwon instructors.

syh@breaknews.com

[Shocking testimony] Low quality native speaking instructor expulsion site manager Mr. K
"The only thing left [to encounter among foreign instructors] is a murderer."

The informant Mr. K, who has contributed detailed reports on the realities of unqualified and low quality foreign instructors to this paper, pointed out that it is the natural result of the worrying things that have been revealed one by one.

Kim said, "There are many native speaker instructors who have faked their diplomas and habitually molested women while taking drugs and having stoned parties," and criticized [the authorities], saying "I've requested that the E-2 visa be strengthened and that criminal records [be required] but things haven't improved."

Kim said, "The things that we were concerned about are actually appearing in society. Sexual molester instructors and drug [taking] instructors have been caught by police. All that is left is a foreign instructor with a murder record or one with a criminal past who may commit murder. The suspect in the [JonBenét] Ramsey case had actually been an instructor in Korea, so who can guarantee that there won't be a second Ramsey incident?" he said, and demanded thorough government-level supervision follow upon the English craze.

Kim is currently conducting a campaign at agencies relevant to drug [taking] native speaking instructors to attach medical certificates and criminal record checks. In addition, he is preparing materials and is in contact with policy makers and lawmakers so as to strongly urge the inclusion of medical certificates and criminal record checks for native speaking instructors.

Kim has also made this recommendation to the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Office. The following is the full content of Kim's October 6 petition:

"Please include a medical examination certificate and a criminal record check with the E-2 visa. Even if you would rather not bring up the qualification problem of native speaking English instructors, you will know enough about it from the authorities. Looking at the Ramsay incident now, the problem with native speaking English instructors is becoming more and more serious. E-2 visa applicant countries Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa must include a medical certificate for an employment visa. Whether or not they committed an offense is also an issue so it must be included. Only in Korea do we not include them due to issues with human rights or instructor supply and demands. This means many disqualified people will not be blocked. However, these documents are included for native speaking assistant teachers [hired by] the Ministry of Education. As the E-2 visa is a visa related to English language education, it should be administered more strictly. If a second Ramsay incident occurs in Korea, who will assume the responsibility? A medical check can block an influx of native speaking instructors who use drugs and have sexually transmitted diseases, and a criminal record check can block instructors with criminal records. Children are being exposed to great danger. Please add medical examination certificates and criminal record checks to the documents [needed] for E-2 visas. Once something happens it will be too late."

In response to Kim's complaint, the Immigration Inspection Division sent a response on Oct. 17 saying it could not enforce this for reasons of protecting personal information and privacy violations"

"As there are many problems to consider such as personal information protection, invasion of privacy and the principle of reciprocity, requesting a foreign criminal record and medical certificate prior to entering the country and blocking entry beforehand cannot be implemented. However, we will continue to strengthen the conversation instruction (E-2) visa issuance screening and establish continuous measures through consultation with institutions related to [foreigners] sojourns."

In regard to this, Kim emphasized that, "This is directly related to the safety of students and our children, and even though criminals and unqualified people are openly with children even in schools due to lax management of them, and more than saying preposterous things like checking into foreign instructors' criminal past at the time of entry goes against protection of personal information, it's urgent to prepare more concrete measures."

From 2006: 'Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees'

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

Part 1: Foreign instructors earn money, are 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs
Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'
Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’
Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet
Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees.
Part 6: Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS
Part 7: There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees

On September 12, 2006 BreakNews continued rifling through every corner of the internet to find material with which to demonize foreign English teachers shed light on the 'realities of foreign English teachers' and the threat they pose to the good, upstanding, patriotic citizens of South Korea. One wonders just how much the article is based on tips by Anti-English Spectrum (whose leader provides the only interview in the story) and how much the reporter found herself.

--------------------

Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees

[Exclusive report] Out of 5 women a Canadian foreign instructor was dating, 3 were housewives!!

Reporter Shin Yeon-hui

'Native speaker blacklist,' illegal, low-grade foreign instructor scandal part 5

Over the last month this paper has carried four in-depth articles on the realities of English Spectrum and illegal and low-grade foreign English instructors. In particular, readers could not repress their astonishment and shock at the repulsiveness of some foreign instructors who see Korean women as sex toys and habitually molest or rape them.

After 'Inside Story' released its exclusive report "Native speaking instructor blacklist," it made a huge impact. On the basis of this news report, local and international broadcasters and media have reported one after the other on the realities of illegal and low quality foreign instructors.

As a result, we have learned that an inspection agency is making efforts to study the realities of native speaking instructors in Korea. It was confirmed that the investigation was started by the prosecution after the article "Foreign instructor spread naked photos of female students on the internet" was published in issue 434 of our paper.

A reporter confirmed that foreign instructor A is currently on the run. Meanwhile, another tip related to illegal and low quality foreign instructors was received by this paper on September 1. The informant revealed the shocking news that there is an online café for Korean women who have foreigners as lovers and that housewives were having affairs with foreign English instructors who taught their children.

Tracing the internet cafe for lovers of foreigners ... which outwardly appears a healthy space

Actual writing posted on the site is full of complaints of victimization like rape and abortion

Following up on the tip, this reporter tracked down the Internet café for women with foreign lovers. The informant explained that among the foreigners whom date, many are English instructors.

The two cafes in question were registered on a portal site. These cafes look like healthy spaces where women share their love stories, but if you read the actual postings at the site, they are not like that at all.

Many of the group's female members complained of pregnancies and abortions, as well as things like unreasonable sexual demands. Most of the postings vent their frustration and pain, saying things such as "I'm four weeks pregnant...", "I'm going to the hospital to have an abortion tomorrow," or "Foreigners are like that. He didn't care that what he was demanding was painful." Beside these, there are also a lot of postings about foreign instructors' shocking romantic / sexual behavior with Korean women.

A female member disclosed the perverted and degenerate behavior of her foreign boyfriend in a posting titled 'My boyfriend now scares me.'

"These days I am worried because of my (foreign) boyfriend who makes more and more demands in our relationship. When we are together, we argue but also fool around and have fun. But when I contact him when we're apart, my boyfriend says a lot of sexual things, like talking about his fantasies. I want to make a video with you. I want to have sex in public. I want to make out with you and other women together and see you do naughty things. And he even talked about bondage ... I like to have sex and tend to enjoy it, but not perverted stuff. So my boyfriend and I have never really complained to each other about sex. Last time we had sex I took photos just for fun. I erased them later, but since then my boyfriend has wanted to do such perverted things that I've gotten really stressed. He is the second boyfriend I've had and it's been almost a year now and we're serious about each other, but he's asking too much. I've lived with people cursing foreign men, saying I should totally ignore them and that they are all really perverts, but now the more I meet him the more I see him changing into a pervert, so it's hard.

Another female member attracted attention by uploading a post denouncing a secret meeting of foreign instructors in Itaewon.

"Not long ago I heard something shocking from a friend. I also once met that person (foreign instructor Mr. C). He is from Italy, but went to school in the US and now lives near Samgakji. On weekends, he usually tries to find girls at clubs or on chat sites, and if she seems easy he sleeps with her a few times and then passes her on to his friends. A while ago I met Mr. C via chatting and he was good looking and didn't seem perverted, but after I had a drink he followed me to the bathroom and suddenly kissed me like it wasn't a spectacle. That many women have suffered this makes me even more angry."

There are many more articles posted on this cafe complaining of the women members' suffering and victimization, but as only a few have been excerpted only a few have been made public.

Regarding this, informant L worried, saying "Women who join this group are complaining of common suffering. Though they share it, there are cases where they do not realize that they are becoming victims."

In being lured, housewives are no exception.

It is now closed, but [there was once a] foreign instructor job search site called 'English Spectrum' where foreign instructors posted and shared articles such as "How to molest Korean elementary school students", and "how to extort money." Informant L saved a post that was uploaded there in 2005 and gave it to this reporter, and its contents are shocking.

"(Foreign instructor) XX [could] really go to jail ... really! In Korea, adultery is still a big crime (remember this is a Confucian country). When he goes to jail, he will suffer a lot. XX may not be the only one going to jail, (Korean woman) 00, who he slept with, might go to jail too. It could happen because her husband found out. That's why I pay a lot of money, to not go to jail. XX could rot for two years in a cell, or be deported. My advice: prostitutes are easy to find in Korea, so it's better to go there. Next time, take your money and have fun with the prostitutes."

This is a comment in response to the original post by a friend of a foreign instructor who told the story of how his friend was sleeping with a housewife and this was discovered [by the husband].

XX, who was in trouble due to adultery, was an English tutor. He demanded that the mother of the student he taught have sex with him instead of paying tuition, and after that this he was found out. A psychiatric counselor who is friends with this reporter told of a Canadian English instructor who bragged, "I've had five Korean women as lovers, three of whom were housewives."

Mr. K, who launched a movement to expel illegal and low-quality foreign language instructors, said, "We have filed civil complaints with the police, received reports from female victims, and have continued to take action to help them, but among problematic foreign instructors there are still many who are not even aware that they've done wrong." "This issue should be steadily publicized so that it does not just get temporary attention and die down. It is urgent that we create an environment in which we can improve laws and the [employment] system so that unqualified foreigners can't be hired as instructors anymore."

From 2006 - Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

Part 1: Foreign instructors earn money, are 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs
Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'
Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’
Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet
Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees.
Part 6: Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS
Part 7: There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet

On August 21, 2006, BreakNews published the following story in its series on the scum and villainy to be found among foreign English teachers; it draws a great deal on the previous article. This translation was originally posted at another site back in 2006 and is reposted here with permission.

Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet

[Inside Story exclusive report 3] The secret of the nude photos on the website of a famous native speaking English instructor

Reporter Shin Yeon-hui

There is a growing stir from the issue of the “low-quality foreign English teacher blacklist,” reported in an exclusive in Issue 432 of Inside Story.

Broadcasters, “Y” news agency and major dailies ran stories on the “native English speaker blacklist” on Aug. 15 based on our report. In particular, with the U.S. media raising issue with the quality of native English speaking teachers in Korea and [other parts of] Asia and this paper running its report, there have been a string of reports on the realities of low-quality native speaking English teachers.

Prior to our report on the blacklist, we ran an in-depth report on the shocking debauchery of some low-quality foreign English teachers subtitled, “Low-quality foreign teachers absorbed in women, drugs.” This got a huge response.

Since the paper ran two exclusive investigative reports into the realities of low-quality foreign teachers, netizens have been flooding our Internet edition, “BreakNews.com,” with comments and tips.

Meanwhile, we’ve gotten a shocking tip from Mr. Kim, who tipped this paper off to the “native speaking teacher blacklist.” The new tip from Mr. Kim includes:

—People being sued or personally threatened after they’ve lodged complaints against unqualified English teachers;
—Foreign teachers going around with high school girls;
—A famous English teacher openly posting pictures of nude Korean women on his homepage;
—English teachers who appear on TV illegally tutoring or asking outrageous prices.

Since we reported on the blacklist, composed based on acts of degree forgery, sexual assault, theft and other misdeeds by foreign English teachers, we’ve gotten a string of trips about native speaking English teachers from former and current English teachers and students. This is evidence that the problem isn’t limited to just a small minority of foreign teachers.

Posting naked women photos on his homepage

Of all the examples we’ve seen so far, the decadent behavior of American Mr. A, a well-known teacher at a famous foreign language hagwon, is the most shocking.

Mr. A is a native speaking instructor who is supposedly doing well, who in addition to his good looks is the main teacher at his hagwon. But on his personal homepage, Mr. A has shockingly posted nude photos of the Korean women with whom he has slept and is sharing them with other native speaking instructors.

When we visited the homepage address, provided us by tipster Mr. Kim, nude photos of Korean women—their faces visable—were openly posted. The photo were taken on a bed and sofa, while in the background, your attention is drawn to various articles that appear to be personal items.

In this place, presumed to be Mr. A’s home, it appears he naturally took nude photographs of Korean women wearing not even a stitch.

Kim explained, however, that there is room to debate whether the women were Mr. A’s students or paid models.

Mr. A, whose homepage contains an astonishing number of nude photos, is still working as an instructor at the well-known foreign language academy.

The Kim family, who run a restaurant in a neighborhood with many hagwons, tipped this paper to the following scenes they’ve witnessed in a Gyeonggi-do hagwon area:

—A foreigner and a Korean high school student in their restaurant. At first they thought they were teacher and student, but they caught them kissing in the bathroom;
—The girl paid for the food;
—In the car, the student and the foreigner shamelessly engaged in embarrassing acts of affection;
—You can witness many such scenes near the train station and throughout the hagwon area.

The Kim family pleaded to our paper, “If you have the power to help our youth study properly, please help.”

Partiality for high school girls

In an email tip to this reporter, Mr. Bae, who works as a hagwon English teacher, strongly criticized a) some teachers who joke around during their conversation classes; b) foreign teachers who think students should be grateful for their time even when they [the students] buy them meals, unlike Korean teachers who buy meals for their students; c) the attitudes of foreign teachers, who emphasize only time and bonuses.

Bae said, “Korean departments of education should try to cultivate Korean [English] teachers rather than insisting on native speakers only.”

He added, “With white loafers who can’t get jobs back home working as English teachers, we must sound the alarm again some instructors who joke around, waste time and act arrogantly.” He stressed, “More than anything else, what needs to change is the attitude of students who insist on learning from native speaker instructors only.”

Mr. Jeong, who recruits teachers for English hagwons, said, “When we place an advertisement for native English speaking instructors, there are numerous occasions when many of the native speaker applicants are unqualified. In particular, I was surprised to hear that among some of the foreign job seekers registered at woXXX.XX.co.kr, it’s the rage to engage in illegal tutoring.” He scolded the government for lacking measures to deal with low-quality native speaker instructors, saying, “We are virtually ridden by illegal native speaker instructors, but it seems the government has formulated no measures at all. In this situation, native speaker instructors must really look down upon the government and Korean people.”

He also said some of the people who appear on TV are openly working as English teachers. “I inquired about private tutoring and was introduced to a female actress who frequently appeared on a certain TV program. I turned her down, however, when she asked for 70,000 won an hour.

It’s absurd that someone would ask for several times more money just because they’re riding their fame from appearing on TV. This is clearly illegal, and we must awaken to how the broadcast companies and these individuals are being managed.”

Accuse me, and I’ll file charges

The inappropriate behavior of some foreign teachers has reached a dangerous level, but the reality is that there’s really no place to file complaints about the unethical behavior of low-quality English teachers. In fact, there are increasing instances of tipsters having their identity exposed or receiving threats.

Mr. Ahn, a tipster who complained of this, told of his experience when he protested the behavior of one foreign teacher whose behavior he could no longer tolerate. The teacher, who teaches in an English hagwon for young children, did not even graduate from college. In class, he swears at students to “shut the fuck up,” and when they play “the question game” (if you answer the question, you win), he lets students win by asking the other side, “Do you want to sleep with me?”

Ahn said, “I asked the teacher why the students were cursing in his class, and he said that since it was English class, it didn’t matter if they swore in English.” At this point he understood this wasn’t a person qualified to teach children.

According to Ahn, one of the teacher’s parents is Korean, so even though he’s an American citizen, he has an F-4 visa (permanent residency issued to North Americans of Korean descent), and using this, he conveniently acts Korean or American depending on the situation. Unable to graduate college, he drifted around without work and is now teaching kindergarten and elementary school students English at a hagwon in Gyeonggi-do.

Furious that the teacher was using swear words with the students, Ahn strongly protested to the hagwon, but outrageously, the hagwon arranged a meeting between him and the teacher, who in turn threatened to report Ahn to the police.

Ahn was dumbfounded. “If you protest to hagwon about an unqualified teacher, I naturally thought the school would take measures to get the teacher to wake up or fire him, but I never expected that a complaint could be lodged against me with the police.”

Mr. Lee, who experienced a similar instance, said he received several threatening text messages from the teacher. Feeling threatened, Lee asked the police and immigration bureau for help, but at the immigration office, he was told that all the teacher needed to do is say he didn’t do it. The police, meanwhile, told him they visited the hagwon and said he [Mr. Lee] had placed a tip, exposing his identity as the tipster.

The hagwon is standing with the problematic teacher. Lee bitterly complained, “I made a just complaint in my own country, but nobody will help, and an unqualified foreign teacher, from a position of superiority, is turning on me like a thief on a master.”

Meanwhile, most of the netizens who read this paper’s exclusive report on the “native speaker teacher blacklist” agreed that low-quality foreign teachers should be expelled from the country.

The following are netizen comments posted at “BreakNews.com,” our Internet edition.

A netizen going by the name “Min So-hee” said, “I decided to learn English, but after watching the behavior of the foreign male teachers at the hagwon, I felt serious doubts, and now I have fundamental questions about why I must learn English.” She said, “Learning English is fine, but I hope this article become an opportunity to inform countless women like me that it’s not good to get close to English teachers.”

Another netizen wrote, “Frankly, for me it’s easy. This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is an important problem that is entangled with Western fundamentalism, in which low-quality English teachers and other whites treat other races as inferior races, as well as other issues. After this article, I think there will be a lot of tips and information. There is still too much that needs to be put into article form.”

Another netizen drew attention with an essay exposing the realities of foreign English teachers.
Pointing out the problems of Korea’s English-learning craze and calling for improved screening of foreign teachers, he wrote:

There are 30,000 foreign teachers residing in Korea thanks to Korea’s English-learning craze, and for someone like me, who has thought the one issue we must overcome is that of the legal qualifications and unethical character of foreign teachers, it was very nice to see an article showing the realities of these low-quality English teachers.

Just because you speak English as a native language doesn’t mean you can be a teacher, and by the same token, if there’s a problem in the character of a teacher, there must be severe discipline for that person. In Korea, there are good foreign teachers combining legal credentials and proper character, low-quality teachers who are both unqualified and unethical, and low-quality teachers who are legal but unethical. With the current system, it’s hard to sort them out.

But this is something we must do. The fact is that anyone who has experienced English education has experienced low-quality teachers, and even if they’ve never experienced one directly, they’ve heard around them instances of harm. I’ve heard stories of people suffering from classes taught by bad teachers, and beyond the educational damage, there are everyday cases of female victims keeping silent about their experiences because they are of a personal and sexual nature.

So that more instances of harm caused by low-quality teachers do not occur, I think we must acknowledge the problems of the current situation and discuss the many views as to how to solve them.

Another netizen wrote, “In five years of teaching, I saw many kind of native speaker teachers. While working with them, there were many times when I had to quit because I felt dirty and ashamed due to their feelings of superiority and insincere class preparation, and native speakers lacking even morals are given full-service like a king, receiving money for their plane ticket, free apartments, cable, Internet and furniture. Now with even women satisfying them in bed, would native speakers return to their own countries to work in Walmart again?”

From 2006 - English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

Part 1: Foreign instructors earn money, are 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs
Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'
Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’
Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet
Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees.
Part 6: Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS
Part 7: There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’

On August 16, 2006, BreakNews published the following article at its site. I would guess it was not published in hard copy because the material below was recycled for its next article. As well, the article at their site follows what is below with a reprint of its previous article. It does go to show how much this material was being recycled and republished in order to draw attention to the issue, particularly online, as well as how the paper used the comments section at its BreakNews site elicit commentary and material for future articles. Note: most of this article was not translated by me.

-----------------------

English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women'

'Inside Story' Special report on 'Native speaker instructor blacklist'

Reporter Shin Yeon-hui

There is a growing stir from the issue of the "ow-quality foreign English instructor blacklist," reported in an exclusive in Issue 432 of weekly news magazine 'Inside Story.'

On August 15, "Y" news agency, major dailies and broadcasters ran stories on the "native English speaker blacklist" based on our report.

This paper has done two in-depth reports, issue 429's "Foreign instructors 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs," and issue 432's "Low-quality foreign English instructor blacklist" Since then, there have been a flood of phoned-in tips and comments by netizen in this paper's internet edition, BreakNews.

A netizen going by the name "Min So-hee" said, "I decided to learn English, but after watching the behavior of the foreign male teachers at the hagwon, I felt serious doubts, and now I have fundamental questions about why I must learn English." She said, "Learning English is fine, but I hope this article become an opportunity to inform countless women like me that it's not good to get close to English teachers."

The netizen 'Yeongaesomun' wrote critically, "Frankly, for me it's easy. This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is an important problem that is entangled with Western fundamentalism, in which low-quality English teachers and other whites treat other races as inferior races, as well as other issues. After this article, I think there will be a lot of tips and information. There is still too much that needs to be put into article form."

The netizen "Marilyn Gonro" drew attention with an essay exposing the realities of low-grade foreign English instructors.

They said, "There are 30,000 foreign teachers residing in Korea thanks to Korea's English-learning craze, and for someone like me, who has thought the one issue we must overcome is that of the legal qualifications and unethical character of foreign teachers, it was very nice to see an article showing the realities of these low-quality English teachers.

Just because you speak English as a native language doesn't mean you can be a teacher, and by the same token, if there's a problem in the character of a teacher, there must be severe discipline for that person. In Korea, there are good foreign teachers combining legal credentials and proper character, low-quality teachers who are both unqualified and unethical, and low-quality teachers who are legal but unethical." "With the current system, it's hard to sort them out.

But this is something we must do. The fact is that anyone who has experienced English education has experienced low-quality teachers, and even if they've never experienced one directly, they've heard around them instances of harm. I've heard stories of people suffering from classes taught by bad teachers, and beyond the educational damage, there are everyday cases of female victims keeping silent about their experiences because they are of a personal and sexual nature.

So that more instances of harm caused by low-quality teachers do not occur, I think we must acknowledge the problems of the current situation and discuss the many views as to how to solve them," he said, pointing out the problems with Korea's English-learning craze and saying that Korea's foreign instructor qualification screening should be strengthened.

The netizen 'kaebi' wrote, "In five years of teaching, I saw many kinds of native speaker teachers. While working with them, there were many times when I had to quit because I felt dirty and ashamed due to their feelings of superiority and insincere class preparation, and native speakers lacking even morals are given full-service like a king, receiving money for their plane ticket, free apartments, cable, Internet and furniture. Now with even women satisfying them in bed, would native speakers return to their own countries to work in Walmart again?"

"Why can't Americans be Punished?"

The 1988 Seoul Olympics

Prologue 1: "Why can't Americans be Punished?"

Part 1:  The Seoul Olympics, 25 years later
Part 2:  The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 3:  Americans and bad first impressions
Part 4:  Reptilian Style: The 'live-or-die general war' against Hollywood
Part 5:  An attack in a boxing ring
Part 6:  Media responses to the boxing ring incident
Part 7:  No more lion: US swimmers' 'prank' becomes 'diplomatic incident'
Part 8:  KAIST catches Big Ben
Part 9:  Hankyoreh interviews Korean witness to theft by swimmers
Part 10: Stop me if you've heard this one: Four GIs head to Itaewon in a taxi...
Part 11: Taxi-kicking US runner taken to Itaewon police box
Part 12: NBC uses the power of t-shirts to insult Korea... again
Part 13: Cultivating outrage toward America
Part 14: Politicians engage in damage control
Part 15: Heaven on Earth
Part 16: Hustler magazine tramples the purity of the Korean race 
Part 17: Stolen gold

[Update: I rendered the names of the teens below into English from their renderings in Hangeul, which were 매트니 잘스 and 오맬리 패트릭. The latter is easy enough, but I rendered 매트니 잘스 as 'Charles Mateny,' which may not be correct.

Original Post:]

Prologue 1: "Why can't Americans be Punished?"

Prior to the 1988 Olympics, the claiming of jurisdiction by Korean prosecutors in SOFA cases was an issue that had failed to garner much interest among the general public. In the summer of 1988, the Hankyoreh was mostly alone among newspapers in arguing that SOFA should be revised, especially in regard to reporting on rallies calling for the government to take jurisdiction over U.S. soldiers who had committed crimes in several cases outside Seoul that summer. On August 6, however, a spokesperson from the foreign ministry said the government was reviewing the possibility of revising the SOFA. Because issues related to jurisdiction of U.S. soldiers who committed crimes, the rights of Koreans working on U.S. bases, and cost sharing had come up at previous annual security consultative meetings with the U.S. government, various ministries planned to meet to discuss these and make recommendations to USFK. This issue began to gain traction with the public days before the Olympics, however, when the assault of a pregnant Korean woman by American teens from a US base took place in Seoul. In many ways, the Donga Ilbo, even more so than the Hankyoreh, was at the forefront of pushing left-nationalist causes at this time, and on September 5, 1988, twelve days before the Olympics, the Donga Ilbo published the following piece of agitprop article in a column called "Window":

"Why can’t Americans be punished?"
Pregnant woman battered by children of US Military 

September 3, around 8:30 am in Predelivery Room 1424 in the Joongang University Yongsan Hospital on Hangangro 3-ga, in Seoul’s Yongsan-gu. Jo Gyeong-ok (334 Han River 2 ga, Yongsan-gu) was laying in bed and crying as she thought of the infuriating and absurd thing she had gone through the night before.

Mrs. Jo's husband Im Sam-bin (37, tile worker) was at her bedside comforting her, holding his wife’s tear-streaked face in his hands.

At around 12:40 am Mrs. Jo went out by the street to wait for her husband, who was late coming home.

Mrs. Jo married Mr. Im, who is the only son of an only son, three years ago, and at last she was about 4 months pregnant with her first child.

About ten minutes after leaving the house, Cho was surprised when someone suddenly hit her cheek as they rode a bike past her. Mrs. Jo, who shouted "Why did you hit me?” was mistaken in thinking it was her fault. They heard Mrs. Jo's shout and came back on their bicycles.

Both of them were young-looking foreigners.

They began to beat Mrs. Jo. They jibbered on in English and punched and kicked her wildly but, unable to ask them in English why they were beating her, Mrs. Jo screamed.

Passersby reported it to a nearby police box but during the 10 minutes before the neighbourhood patrol arrived she had to suffer beating and taunting.

The two who were arrested and taken to the police box in front of Yongsan Station were found to be the children of American military personnel, Charles Mateny (18, high school student) and Patrick O'Malley (17, high school student). They never did explain why they slapped Mrs. Jo as they rode by on bicycles.

However, after the police contacted the main Yongsan Police Station and asked some questions, they were all sent home around 4 o'clock in the morning.

Mrs. Jo and her husband, Mr. Im, who had hurried to the station later, protested, but the police explained that they couldn’t help it because of the "Korea-US Status of Forces Agreement" [SOFA].

The explanation Mrs. Jo heard was that if they were to collect material from the police and notify the US military, they (the boys) would get punished there so it would be the same anyway, but she could not accept this.

"I don’t know what SOFA is, but they beat a Korean in Korea, so why can’t Korean courts punish them? And how should I get compensation for the mental shock my wife received?"

Her husband, unable to go to work that day, was saddened as he looked after his wife.

Reporter Kim Sang-young

In an article I posted here, it was reported that she would not miscarry. This is the incident - and most likely the very article - that turned issues related to SOFA from an esoteric topic few but activists and those near US bases cared about into an issue people could relate to: the victimization of an innocent Korean - a pregnant woman, at that - at the hands of Americans who seemed to get away without punishment, a trope which would be of great utility to activists in the decades to follow.

The media attention may have led the police to follow up on the assault, as the Donga Ilbo published the following report the next day:

Investigation launched into assault on pregnant woman, USFK kids summoned to police station

The Yongsan Police Department in Seoul has decided to directly investigate the case of the children of US military personnel, Charles Mateny (18, high school student) and Patrick O'Malley (17, high school student), who for no reason assaulted a pregnant Korean woman, and sent a summons to the US 8th Army ordering them to appear before the police within three days.

Police said it was judged that South Korea had jurisdiction over soldiers' family members under Article 22 (3) of the ROK-US SOFA, and decided to summon them for an investigation.

Article 22 paragraph 3 of the ROK-US SOFA states that the US 8th Army holds jurisdiction over active duty US military and US military property, and the ROK has jurisdiction over the families of soldiers, civilian attached to the military, and their families.

Meanwhile, as witnesses testified that they seemed to be high at the time of the assault, police intend to investigate whether they took drugs or not.

The next day, on September 9, 1988, the Donga Ilbo published a follow up which highlighted the impact of the first article:

Stir over US military kids' "assault on pregnant housewife"
US military kids' pregnant housewife assault incident

Our report in "Window" on September 5 is causing an unexpected stir. After the report on this incident our office received flood of telephone inquiries about the SOFA agreement by many readers wanting to recover their wounded national pride and scolding the insincerity and indifference of the police investigation.

The readers who called in above all expressed anger in complaining about the ROK-US SOFA. Experts also pointed out that the ROK-US SOFA is a much more unequal agreement than the "London" convention (concluded in 1951), the law on foreign military status on which it is modelled.

One reader, a 40-year-old housewife, argued that "this agreement, which was signed 22 years ago when we had to put up with inequality, should be correctly revised to fit current realities."

However, rather than the inequality of the agreement itself, what caused resentment among readers was the passive attitude of our nation's government, which from the beginning shrinks from and turns its back on incidents involving Americans, even if one of our citizens is the victim.

According to the ROK-US SOFA, domestic investigative agencies can investigate criminal cases even if they are the families of American military personnel or families of civilians attached to the military, and according to Article 22, which regulates criminal jurisdiction, there are various conditions, but generally jurisdiction over families of American military personnel or civilians, excluding soldiers, should be exercised by Korea. Even in the case of US soldiers, cases of serious crimes such as murder, robbery, and rape must also be brought before Korean courts.

In spite of these regulations, there are many cases when our side gives up jurisdiction while the case is in the hands of the police and the prosecution, and jurisdiction is passed on to the US military.

The fact is, in the past year, of 835 cases involving Americans the Seoul District Prosecutor's office received, 196 cases involved crimes by military family members, but the number of these cases prosecuted by our nation’s prosecutors amounted to no more than twelve.

In fact, in the case of this incident, even though as a matter of course the police should have started an investigation immediately after the incident, one gets the impression that the belated issuing of a subpoena to the young Americans who committed assault is due to the pressure of public opinion.

A 50 year-old reader said, "Although it is an unequal agreement, it is sadaejuui-type thinking for us to abandon even the right to exercise [jurisdiction] as a matter of course." Kim, a 26 year-old graduate student, said, "Acknowledging that there is a positive aspect of the role the US has played in our country since liberation, we should also re-establish our position now by asking the question "What is America to us?"

Reporter Kim Sang-young

One has to chuckle at the Reporter Kim's description of the furor following his first article as an "unexpected stir" when that was pretty clearly the hoped-for response to it. Criticism of the "sadaejuui-type thinking" in regard to Americans appeared the next day when a letter was written to the Donga Ilbo and printed with the title "The humiliation of the US Army kids’ assault on Korean pregnant women; If we can’t punish it, are we not a colony?"

It's the phrase about readers wanting "to recover their wounded national pride" that stood out for me the first time I read this article, however. How wonderful and evocative is that phrase? During the previous year or so the liberalization of the economy, particularly of beef and cigarettes (see the articles here) had angered farmers, and students and farmers' groups held protests, criticizing the government's "renunciation of sovereign rights" and distributed leaflets reading, "Those who smoke foreign-brand cigarettes are sellers of national self-respect." And when United International Pictures (UIP) began doing an end run around Korean film companies by directly distributing its films in Korea during the Olympics, one director said that UIP's dealings demonstrated "a high-handed attitude to the disregard of the Korean people," while another said "UIP's 'sneaking' infiltration is a fatal blow to our pride." The need to recover national pride vis-a-vis the US would become a theme in media coverage throughout the Olmypics, helping spread anger at the US from students and farmers to the population at large.

As reported in a September 19, 1988 Joongang Ilbo article, the United Korea Women's Association gave a statement the day after the Olympics began denouncing the attack by US military teens against the pregnant Korean woman and criticized the "special privileges" of the US military, citing a government statistic that out of 15,000 crimes committed by US soldiers in the past decade, the Korean government had exercised jurisdiction in less than one percent of the cases. As well, they called for the perpetrators' parents and the US Ambassador to publicly apologize to Korea citizens, a speedy and fair investigation and punishment by government authorities, and "revision of the unequal SOFA." They also declared that it "wasn't simply an assault, but a reflection of Americans' tendency to look down on Koreans." This tendency would be highlighted by the media throughout the Olympics, influencing a growth in anti-Americanism that would influence government policy after the Olympics, particularly in regard to the SOFA.

[For an archive of SOFA-related documents, see here.]

A one-sided depiction of the ROK-US alliance and SOFA

Last week an op-ed titled "Is South Korea’s Alliance with the United States Worth It?" by Se-woong Koo, best known for running Korea Expose, appeared in the New York Times. As a piece meant to educate American readers about negative effects the alliance has had on Koreans, it succeeds, but at the cost of being rather one-sided. On the one hand, well, yes, it's an op-ed, and op-eds tend to lean in one direction over another. As well, there's often not a lot of space, so it's not difficult for nuance to get lost. And more material could have been excised by an editor. Still, it seems to play the victimization note a little too consistently to suggest that wasn't the intent.

The introduction based around a personal anecdote is an effective and interesting beginning. It is noted that "South Korea’s relationship with the United States started as one of dependency," which is a good point - though more important might be the fact that a large number of educated people then, and still, feel ashamed by this. For millennia, societies the world over have adopted aspects of the culture or social organization of more powerful states they hoped to influence, but Koreans - North and South - have turned the Korean term describing this - Sadaejuui - into an epithet, which reflects both shame at dependency as well as a desire to overcome that shame. In fact, the thesis of the article - "when that partner turns ungrateful, and even unreliable, it is time to question the idea that the alliance is sacrosanct" - is not a new one. One only need look at the rhetoric critical of the US in the Korean news media during the 1988 Olympics, couched as it was in the need to "recover wounded national pride," to see anger lashed out at an "ungrateful" or "disrespectful" guest. Such criticism of the "erosion of South Korea’s sovereign spirit" had been alive and well for decades, at least in some circles. Reading news reports from the 1950s and 1960s makes clear that more than a few Koreans have long chafed at the US military presence here, and frustration has boiled over periodically throughout the entire length of the alliance (as well as due to the presence of Americans here generally, for example during the Haysmer apple incident in 1926).

Mention is also made of Korea being compelled to contribute soldiers to America’s wars, but all we read of are 5,000 Korean dead and Agent Orange exposure, making it sound like an unmitigated loss for Koreans rather than the huge shot in the arm it was to Korea's economy (right down to the village level due to soldiers sending money home). Much as the Korean War had provided Japan with an opportunity for economic recovery after the destruction of the Pacific War, the Vietnam War (and the normalization of relations with Japan) provided Korea with a means to develop its economy.

As for the withdrawal of US troops leading to less "psychological dependen[ce] on a foreign army," this may well be true, though at their heart, both Koreas' feelings of 'national inadequacy' stem from the condition of Korea's division. And while Germany's leader may be able to say "We Europeans have to take our destiny into our own hands," Germany is in a rather different situation than Korea, with a rather different set of neighbours. One reason to be wary of the withdrawal of US troops is precisely because that is what North Korea has always wanted, and still continues to want as a precursor to the unification of peninsula under North Korean control, as Brian Myers and others have argued. This goes back decades, and the message is most intelligible for non-Korean readers in the pro-North Korea propaganda of the American-Korean Friendship Information Center based in New York in the early 1970s. Links to their material can be found here, though this blurb from their magazine Korea Focus makes things clear enough (from Vol. 1, No. 1, page 58):

Withdrawal of US troops might sound like a good idea in theory. In practice, I'm not so sure.

What I found especially one-sided was this:

Then there is the Status of Forces Agreement, signed between the two nations in 1966 and renewed twice. It has been understood to grant the United States military nearly exclusive jurisdiction over its personnel, such that even high-profile offenses committed by American soldiers against South Korean citizens go unpunished.

One of the most heinous examples happened in 2002 when an American military vehicle ran over two middle-school students, crushing them to death. The perpetrators were shielded from South Korean authorities and a United States military court dismissed the case.

The "It has been understood" part is rather weaselly, in that this perception by the Korean people, encouraged by citizens groups and the media, is mostly incorrect (especially since 1988 and even more so since the 2000s). In not saying so, however, it conveys to American readers that this one-sided "understanding" is factual. The idea that the "United States military [has] nearly exclusive jurisdiction over its personnel, such that even high-profile offenses committed by American soldiers against South Korean citizens go unpunished" better applies the pre-SOFA days (or perhaps to its first 20 years) rather than the present.

SOFA first came into effect on February 9, 1967. Below are some Korea Times articles from that year about SOFA cases (some are hard to make out, unfortunately). The first is from February 11, two days after SOFA came into effect:

Just because the case could be subject to Korean jurisdiction didn't mean Korean prosecutors pursued the case, however, especially since they would have been rather busy, what with 122 crimes committed by US soldiers in the first month, as this March 10 article relates:

As it says above,

The 122 "offenses" reported to the ministry include 36 assault cases, 40 accidental homicide and injury cases involving traffic accidents, and 28 traffic law violation cases. The ministry statistics said that 35 of the 122 cases were turned over to U.S. military investigation authorities. Korean authorities earlier decided to turn all minor offenses over to U.S. authorities and to handle only "important" cases. 

The first soldier to be indicted by Korean prosecutors was Billy Cox, who was charged on March 29, 1967, as this June 20 article relates.

A second soldier was subject to Korean jurisdiction two months later, as this May 23 article relates:

Korean authorities tended to prosecute only serious crimes, particularly murder, arson, and rape, while leaving assaults to USFK authorities. A comment by a Seoul prosecutor in a November 2, 1988 Stars and Stripes article, after the Olympics, indicates again that there was an element of choice in not prosecuting every case:

While the U.S. ROK Status of Forces Agreement gives South Korea primary jurisdiction in incidents involving American troops outside U.S. bases, [Seoul Prosecutor] Yoo [Sang-su] said authorities "have waived that jurisdiction in the past." "The national consciousness toward American troops in Korea has changed, however, and it is time we begin exercising a wider scale of jurisdiction," he said.

Needless to say, the idea that off duty American soldiers were out of reach of Korean authorities is an exaggeration, to say the least, and the post-1988 "exercising [of] a wider scale of jurisdiction" was directly tied to attempts to recover national pride and a change in "national consciousness" after the Olympics.

As for the use of the word "heinous" to describe the 2002 traffic accident - a word with synonyms like "odious, wicked, evil, atrocious, monstrous, abominable, detestable, contemptible, reprehensible, despicable" - this makes rather clear the bias of the author, since it gives the impression that there was malice aforethought in the running over of the two girls, when accounts by those who were there make clear it was an accident. A narrative of Korean victimization at the hands of unpunishable Americans - the standard SOFA narrative since 1988 - drove thousands into the streets for the first, avowedly "non-political," candlelight protests, which have been a means for expression of the national will ever since.

What can be troubling for the US military is the way in which incidents involving alcohol can turn into mob scenes - such as during the 1988 Olympics [here and here], the 1995 subway incident, or the 2004 Sinchon stabbing incident - and the way in which these incidents have been politicized, with the prosecution altering charges for political reasons, particularly to appease public anger. According to ROK Drop, after the 2004 Sinchon stabbing incident, "The soldier was at first charged with simple battery since he was trying to protect himself, but due to all the misinformation in the media the charges were upgraded to attempted murder." A firsthand account by that soldier makes clear just how terrifying the mob scene he got caught up in was, but also how fairly the judge treated him:

[T]he judge told me he would give me a self defense sentence which was typically 2+ years… even though I was convicted of attempted murder. Basically the conviction was to appease the people of S. Korea, and the sentence was relative to a "self defense with a deadly weapon" conviction in that country. The judge was truly fair to both parties in that aspect.

His sentence gives hope that judges have the ability to fairly deal with biased prosecutions. Needless to say, there's a lot complexity involved in the SOFA issue, far from the black and white way in which it is often portrayed. Such simplistic formulations involving victimized Koreans obscure more than they illuminate, and do a disservice to one's readers.


Above I made mention of how a narrative of Korean victimization at the hands of unpunishable Americans has been the standard SOFA narrative since 1988. I've translated a key article from that time and posted it here.

From 2006: A parade of lascivious foreign teachers; or, They shoot Canadians, don't they?

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

Part 1: Foreign instructors earn money, are 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs
Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'
Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’
Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet
Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees.
Part 6: Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS
Part 7: There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'

On either August 17 or August 13, 2006 (note the two different dates below), the tabloid weekly Inside Story, or BreakNews in its online edition, published its second article on the evils of foreign English teachers, with a particular focus on Canadian evildoers. The top right half of the paper's front page is dedicated to promoting the article:

The article is supposed to be here, but the link no longer works. Luckily, the next article in the series - at least at its website - reprints the article in its entirety for some reason. It was also reprinted at Anti English Spectrum, where I got the photos.

It should be noted that all of the BreakNews articles mention the informant Mr Kim (or Mr. K) and/or Anti-English Spectrum. In a November 2006 BreakNews article, Mr. K also made comments, and is described as "Low quality native speaking teacher deportation site manager Mr. K," suggesting this is a pseudonym for AES head Lee Eun-ung. Two days before that article appeared, an older BreakNews article was reposted at Anti-English Spectrum, and in the comments, members thanked 'Mr. Kim'. 'M2' - the ID of Lee Eun-ung, the manager and public face of the site - coyly wrote "I'm curious about Mr. Kim;..." Regular poster 'jasminhyang' later wrote in a comment "the first letter of Mr. Kim's nickname is 'm'." There is a blurred photo below of Mr. Kim. It can be compared to this photo originally published in the LA Times in 2010 (though it is no longer on the site):

For all the sensationalism and one-sideness of the article, it's a reminder that the negative stereotype of foreign English teachers which developed with the help of such articles didn't come from out of nowhere.

-----------------------

Low-quality native speaking instructors: “Korean women give us money and are sex partners”

[The Inside Story’s exclusive, part 2]

Foreign English instructor blacklist

Reporter Sin Yeon-hui

In the Inside Story’s 430th issue, the in-depth article "Foreign instructors earn money, are ‘absorbed in decadence,’ women and drugs" reported on the shocking reality of some foreign English teachers in Korea who are stained with illegality/crime and decadence. After that report, netizens who criticized such low foreign instructors or who claimed to be victims of them denounced them one after the other in the discussion rooms and bulletin boards of this newspaper’s internet edition, Break News.

In addition, information on foreign instructors flooded in. Mr. Kim (37), who has been taking measures against low-grade foreign instructors, said the illegal employment and decadent behavior of foreign instructors are far worse than has been made known through media reports, and he tipped off this paper about shocking victimization cases and the low-grade foreign instructor blacklist.

On August 2 this reporter met Mr. Kim, who knows better than anyone about the English Spectrum Incident, and interviewed him.

'Hello ... Please punish the bad guys who are blind to their own mistakes while smoking marijuana and who denigrate Korean women. I know the academy that he works for. Please tell me how to report it.' 'I've seen foreign English instructors smoke marijuana a lot, and I think it should not spread. I've heard stories of them buying marijuana in Itaewon.'

These are just some of the tips that Mr. Kim has received. In the meantime, many of the women who have complained that they suffered at the hands of low-grade foreign instructors were school or hagwon students. Recently, however, these instructors have been using pen pal sites to introduce themselves as English language instructors and attract women online, he disclosed.

Approaching [women] through pen pal sites

According to Miss A, a woman shared the story of meeting a foreigner who is a native speaking instructor at the provincial K University via a pen pal site, this English instructor, as well as his friends, of course, have at least two Korean girlfriends. They said that Korean girls are generous with money and sleep with them, and that they make the best girlfriends.

Another woman, Miss B, said, "A foreign instructor I became friends with on a pen pal site is dating a female Korean instructor who works at the same institute. The woman is responsible for paying his share, and he is dating the female instructor as a sex partner."

According to Miss B, beyond the 4 million won a month he earns at the hagwon, the foreign instructor earns a lot of money from private lessons and so has a high monthly income.

Among the things that a victimized Korean woman reported to Mr. Kim about a foreign instructor she met on the 'xxx Love' site, one of the many sites for chatting with foreign instructors, one message he sent to the woman while chatting stood out: "To be frank, I am in Korea for sex and money. If you don't have either why come here?” Obviously, it was shocking.

The case of the woman Miss C was even more terrible. Miss C dated a Canadian foreign instructor and became pregnant but had an abortion and even thought about suicide. What was especially shocking was that the foreign instructor was famous for appearing on a TV program.

Miss C, learning she was pregnant, worried he would be even more surprised and agonized, but when she told him his reaction was, "It is just an egg," and said curtly, "Get an abortion, but I can't pay for it."

"When I was on the operating table the doctor asked why I was crying. Was I crying because I was sad, because I was nervous, because I'd taken anesthesia? I just said that I was nervous. I felt horrible, wondering how I had come to this," Miss C said, pouring out her miserable feelings from that time.

"Now I don't believe in God. During the months I suffered pain due to my baby, he was performing on TV, tutoring, and lecturing at a hagwon. If there is a God, if the life given to me is 60 year, it would be good to die at 50, I want him to die. If I commit suicide one day, I will do it on August 21, the day I aborted my child," Miss C lamented, and worried that this instructor might victimize another Korean woman.

Mr. Kim explained that instances in which women become pregnant while dating a foreign instructor are common. He disclosed the story of Miss L, who was abandoned and attempted suicide after finding out she was pregnant while dating a foreign instructor.

After graduating from junior college, Miss L began working and while attending a foreign language academy met and dated a Canadian instructor but they broke up. The instructor was soon dating a Korean female student in another class but after breaking up Miss L found out she was pregnant.

Miss L's friend met the foreign instructor and demanded he take responsibility for the abortion surgery, but all he said, coldly, was "We once had feelings for each other and I have no responsibility.”

Miss L, who experienced betrayal and pregnancy from her first love at a young age, is struggling to cope day by day with suicidal impulses.

Miss D, who dated a native speaking professor at A university, said, "The professor is dating several women. If this becomes known, he has a habit of using violence, like throwing furniture at the woman he is dating."

He has been charged with assault by police several times, but the foreign professor only paid hundreds of thousands of won in fines and as this is not grounds to divest him of his professorship he is still working at D University.

Miss E, who currently resides in Japan, had an experience while working for a while in Korea.

"As I’' been in a foreign country for a long time and all my friends had married and lived far away, I felt a little lonely. Then I came to know the 'xxx Love' site on a certain portal site, and as I was lonely and wanted to find a pen pal there and write them letters, I joined it,” and in this way became friends with a Canadian living in Korea.

Since Miss E was also an expat, they shared their stories about life abroad and became acquainted, and she learned that he was a famous English instructor who had appeared on TV.

However, once they had become acquainted, he revealed his true colors and made sexual demands of Miss E. She said he was so explicit, especially when they were chatting together, that it is hard to express in words.

Miss E said that while she had a [preconceived] image of Korean people and just tried to move beyond it, he said, 'You are not a child. I want to teach you many things. I do not like nuns," all while continuously hitting on her.

In addition to the TV program, the foreign instructor also appeared on a New Year's special and went to parties every week. "Fortunately, I was not directly victimized, but I was sexually harassed several times, and the problem in particular was that the foreigner did not think of Korean women as people but simply as sex partners," worried Miss E.

Mr. Kim pointed out that the number of Korean women who are victimized after meeting foreign instructors online in the manner mentioned above is increasing rapidly.

According to Mr. Kim, what is worse is that a link to an obscene site containing images of Korean women there can be found at the pen pal site, which, he said angrily, leads to even further debasement of Korean women by low-grade foreign instructors.

This can be seen at 'Xxxlove, repuxxxx.xxxx.com, and oreanxxx.xxxx.com', and these sites are still running, he said. And in some cases, links to the pen pal site are exchanged at the obscene sites.

Alcoholic instructors abound

 Informant Mr. Kim

Mr. Kim pointed out that there are still plenty of job postings for unqualified foreigners at the native speaking instructor job search site English Spectrum, and that there is an urgent need for authorities to strengthen the qualifications for foreign instructors.

Mr. Kim said the fact is some corporate-type English hagwons find out that foreign instructors have criminal records or are alcoholics and hire them anyway, and some smaller hagwons have stopped the formality of recruitment screenings, making it easy for low-grade foreign instructors to be hired.

In fact, at an English hagwon in Daegu, an instructor was found to be an alcoholic, arousing criticism. His family in his home country said his alcoholism was so serious he should be hospitalized and asked around about his whereabouts. The instructor in question was reported to be working again as a hagwon instructor in another area.

Foreign instructors are required to obtain an E-2 visa, which is an English conversation instructor visa, in order to teach English in Korea. After the English Spectrum Incident in 2005, the qualification requirements for E-2 visas were somewhat strengthened so that in addition to diplomas, transcripts have to submitted, and a fake document detection system has also been established.

According to Mr. Kim, one can be relieved that currently steps are being developed so that at least foreigners working as assistant teachers in Seoul elementary and middle school can be said to be in the top 30%.

Mr. Kim said, "I do not want only foreigners to be unconditionally chosen as instructors. Korean English instructors with English ability are also acceptable enough. Finland and Sweden are now investing heavily in their English language teachers, so students in Northern Europe are not hindered in their English communication due to their local English teachers who have improved their English skills." "If even half of the budget to bring foreign teachers were invested in Korean English instructors, quality education could be provided to students," he emphasized.

In order to prevent the mass occurrence of secondary and tertiary victims by drawing attention to the harm caused by low-grade foreign English instructors, Anti-English Spectrum, who were introduced through an article in this newspaper, has launched a movement to distribute 5,000 flyers in Hongdae, where there are lots of clubs, and at girls’ high schools and women’s universities, as well as to send petitions to authorities such as the immigration office and to senior officials. They are also launching an online campaign to expel low-grade foreign instructors which aims for 10,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, the Korean Native Speaking Instructor Recruiting Association has published a blacklist of 17 unqualified foreign instructors with profiles and reasons for their ineligibility. The reasons for their being blacklisted were things such as many midnight runs, disappearing after receiving their salary, student molestation, theft, and document forgery.