The case of the disappearing drug mule

As it turns out, there's more to be said about the story of the philipon smuggling involving a supposed native speaking teacher that Yonhap broke on May 4. To summarize, a dealer in South Africa used a South African woman as a mule to bring almost a kilo of philipon into Korea in her luggage and got caught at Incheon Airport. Two months later (ie. at the end of April) police caught the dealer she was supposed to make the delivery to - a Nigerian who had illegally taught English here in a hagwon at some point (among other jobs). Now, I was thinking that Yonhap's title "Former native speaking instructor caught smuggling philopon" was misleading in that the Nigerian wasn't actually the smuggler, but since he was part of the plot, it could be argued the title wasn't that much of stretch. I figured it was the at the very minor end of the "misleading" scale, so I didn't mention it when I blogged on it at the time. Yonhap also referred to him as a "Nigerian English instructor who came to Korea in 2006" (implying he has always been working as a teacher here) in the body of the article, while the Chosun Ilbo said he first worked as a factory worker.

Later in the evening on the day the story broke, however, YTN provided a crash course in how to mislead readers. Kudos to YTN, the television arm of state-run Yonhap, "Korea's Reuters." Compare the following to the summary above (or the Yonhap article):

Native speaking teacher arrested for smuggling large amount of Philipon

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested two people including 32 year-old Nigerian C for bringing a large amount of Philipon into Korea from South Africa and trying to distribute it.

C and another were charged for bringing to Incheon Airport, hidden in luggage, 900 grams of philipon worth 3.2 billion won given to them by a drug dealer in Johannesburg in February.

It was discovered that C came to Korea in 2006 and worked as a native speaking English instructor and clothing exporter at the same time but when the business failed he tried his hand at smuggling drugs.

The news report can be watched here, and shows the half-assed way in which the meth was hidden in her bag:

"Native speaking teacher arrested for
smuggling large amount of Philipon"

If we remember, the person arrested at the airport for smuggling meth into Korea was a South African woman who was to deliver it to a Nigerian living in Korea who was a 'former native speaking teacher'. It's ironic that YTN has shown a photo that I imagine is the South African woman smuggler mentioned in all the other reports, considering she has been effectively erased from the story to focus on the 'native speaking teacher.' This was done by, obviously, not mentioning her and by using the formulation "C 씨 등은..." which is talking about C, the Nigerian, but also implies that the second, unmentioned person is being talked about as well, allowing YTN to make it appear as if a native speaking teacher had been caught smuggling meth into the country (as seen in the photo above). And because "C 씨" could be male or female (though its generally assumed to be male and is often noted in brackets if its a female, that's not always the case), viewers are led to believe (aided by the caption) that the photo above is of the invented Nigerian native speaking teacher smuggler.

This isn't the first time YTN has done this. In 2009, when police announced two drug arrests - one involving two Canadian teachers and another involving some 34 Thais, Yonhap published an article mentioning both arrests, but followed it up with another that focused almost entirely on the teachers. YTN took this to its logical extreme later in the day by broadcasting a report that omitted the Thai workers entirely. (And let's not forget these two classic YTN reports.) The same process has occurred here as well, wherein the South African smuggler who had gotten in the way of the story YTN apparently wanted to tell - "native speaking English teachers import drugs (and not just pot, but now meth)" - was removed in order to communicate its preferred narrative unencumbered by factual distractions.

New, expanded version! (I'd forgotten about this cartoon)

Now, had the 'native speaking teacher' been a Korean American who, say, had murdered a 75 year-old man, fled the US and lived on the lam in Korea for 10 years before being extradited to the US and sentenced to life in prison with no parole, perhaps the article might have turned out like this Weekly Donga article, which made prominent the fact that 'he didn't mean to kill him' and hinted that the racism he faced in America had twisted him (and perhaps influenced the verdict). The title? "Philadelphia fugitive's 'cruel fate'."


* Wikipedia has information on the origins of methamphetamine and Japanese-produced Philopon, including an interesting 1948 lawsuit.

In Gwangju in May 1980...

From Yonhap:


On the 18th at Geumbu Elementary School, the students of 4th grade 5th and their parents had a class together on the 31st anniversary of the 5.18 Democracy movement.

The teacher and parents told the students of the background of 5.18, how the citizens fought the martial law army, and the significance of the uprising. Students and parents wore headbands like Gwangju's citizens did at the time and made rice balls (jumeokbap).

I've looked at how the uprising is commemorated in Gwangju before here and here.

"The most tragic event in Korea’s modern history"

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of Park Chung-hee's coup in 1961, which I've looked at before here and here. According to this interview with Kim Jong-pil, one of the coup's architects, the coup was inspired by Nasser's. The Korea Times had an article looking at the legacy of Park's rule and the nostalgia some feel for him.

Professor Rhee Young-hoon of the Department of Economics at Seoul National University said in an interview with Yonhap that the “current political leadership that lacks the capability to resolve social divisions” caused the eruption of so-called Park Chung-hee nostalgia.

“The May 16 event was basically all about a military coup. But the coup became a milestone event that initiated the nation’s modernization,” the conservative economist said.

Liberals’ interpretation of the May 16 coup is very different.

Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition Democratic Party called it the most tragic event in Korea’s modern history, saying the coup paved the way for 36 years of military rule in the nation.

The DP lawmaker also played down the late President’s role in industrialization.

According to Yonhap, Park said that Chang Myon's democratic government formed after 4.19 had already established a 5 year plan, and Park borrowed the idea. And focusing on the "36 years of military rule" (though it could be argued that the period from 1963-71 was not military rule) helps to ignore the 13 year-long thugocracy run by Syngman Rhee, whose election rigging, torture and firing on students led to his overthrow. And to be sure, when I think of "the most tragic event in Korea’s modern history," I tend to think of this:



Apparently the Korean War rates below Park's coup in terms of tragic events, at least when you're the head of the Democratic Party. One imagines he's also taking potshots at Park Geun-hye, who is discussed in connection with her father here.

Just for fun, here's a Korea Herald article about Park Geun-hye's first press conference (she'd become acting first lady after her mother's death), from December 16, 1975:

Promoting a "correct understanding" of the islets beyond Ulleungdo

On May 13, Yonhap published the following story from Daegu:

"Dokdo is Korean land"...Native speaking teachers to visit Dokdo

It was announced on the 13th that from the 16th to the 18th, 55 native speaking teachers living in Gyeongsangbuk-do will have a history and culture tour of Ulleungdo and Dokdo.

The aim of the trip is to give foreign teachers a correct understanding of Dokdo's past and present, and to promote the mysterious island of Ulleungdo.

Out of 460 native speaker teachers responsible for English classes in the province's elementary, middle, and high schools, 239 applied to go, and out of these, 55 were chosen.

The foreign teachers are from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and South Africa.

During this tour, Inha University law professor Lee Seok-u and Handong University international law school professor Lee Hui-eon will give lectures on, respectively, "The international legal debate over the San Francisco Peace Treaty" and "The importance of Dokdo and globalization."

Kim Jong-hak, head of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Dokdo Protection said, "We offered the chance to visit Dokdo to foreign teachers to expand the promotion of Dokdo beyond Korea to foreigners and foreign countries."

Hopefully they don't have to submit essays after they've finished, as was described here. While I doubt I would go, knowing how the teachers are to be used as propaganda tools (see previous link), I can imagine others would endure the (thrilling, I'm sure) lectures to get a free trip to Ulleungdo. As I've mentioned before, I went there in 2002:

(Yes, those are thousands of squid drying.)

It's probably the most beautiful place I've been to in Korea, and is well worth visiting.

Sharp-shooting middle school girls

From the Korea Times, January 21, 1976:



One wonders if the middle and high school girls get such training there now (especially given recent events). Then again, one wonders if there are any children that age left on the island, considering how depopulated Korea's countryside is becoming (with children especially being in short supply). At any rate, the image above reminded me of these images:



Those photos are taken from the 1989 documentary 'The Parade' (Defilada) by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Fidyk, which covered the celebrations in North Korea marking the 40th anniversary of its founding (I have a copy somewhere, but its a mutant with overdubbed Japanese narration and 30 extra minutes added to it that I downloaded years ago). I'd thought it was the first time an outsider had been allowed to film in the DPRK, but Scott Burgeson pointed me in the direction of Johannes Schönherr's work digging up the history of an Italian / North Korean co-production filmed in North Korea in 1988 called Ten Zan. As it turns out, the entire film can be watched on youtube:

BBC skirts topic

Via my friend Ryan, it seems the BBC has picked up yesterday's Korea Times story about the kerfuffle caused by short skirts worn by students, a problem to be solved in Gangwon-do by spending about 820 million won to change the desks by placing boards across their fronts. Ten years ago all the leg I remember seeing was seen under practically knee-length shorts in the summer, and knee-length skirts on schoolgirls. Things have changed a lot, with the relaxing of rules for students in the past five years being, I think, a pretty direct cause for these changes among students (with the prevalence of short skirts being something that has occurred over only the last two years (and over the last year, I think, in my neighbourhood).

There has also apparently been an increase in middle school students wearing makeup, which James attributes to teen girl groups and their appearances in makeup advertising. I imagine that's correct, though it likely wouldn't have been possible under the 'appearance management regime' that existed in most middle and high schools until recently. As the stories of a Korean friend who teaches at a private boys' high school remind me, though, not every school has done away with those regulations. His school has a roving band equipped with hair clippers which walks into classes and checks the boys appearances, providing immediate haircuts for offenders, Yusin style. In fact, here's a piece from Stars and Stripes from June 12, 1974 about a similar crackdown:

Of course, back then short skirts used to be measured on the street as well...

Guess that location

Can anyone guess what building's roof these men are exercising on?


There are at least two buildings which are still standing today in the background. The image is a panorama made from stills from the 1940 propaganda film 'Patriots Day in Chosen,' which can be found on this dvd.

Conscientious objection in Korea

Ben Wagner and I wrote an article about conscientious objection in Korea for this month's Groove Magazine, which can be read here. I previously wrote on this topic six years ago here. While I was researching the topic, I came across a documentary (here) about Kang Cheol-min, a private in the ROK military who in 2003 held a sit-in during his first leave to protest the ROK sending troops to Iraq, for which he served a year and a half in prison. I was interested in the documentary partly because some Korean friends brought me along to the sit-in and I met him at the time, and wasn't that surprised to find myself in the background of one scene. At any rate, here are a few related articles from the Korea Times over the years:

2007.09.18
Alternative Military Services Planned

2007.09.21
[Times Editorial] Alternative Service

2008.07.04
Alternative Service for Conscientious Objectors Reconsidered

2008.12.24
68% Oppose Alternative for Conscientious Objectors

2009.01.08
Conscientious Objectors Top 5,000

2010.05.06
Conscientious military service objectors will appeal to UN

2011.03.14
Military sees surplus of conscripts after shortening service duration

2011.03.21
Korea to keep alternative military service until 2015 (for those with health problems, not COs)

2011.04.17
UN calls for fair treatment of conscientious objectors

2011.04.20
'I'd rather go to jail than serve in military'

Children's Day links

As it's Children's Day, I thought I'd point out this KBS article (hopefully that cache still works) about its founder Bang Jeong-hwan, who also coined the term eorini (어린이). As this Arirang article notes,

"A long time ago, children were called "ahae." Moreover, the derogatory suffix "nom" was often added, giving "ahaenom." Today, the term for children is more respectful than that of years ago."

Calling children 'nom' - how sweet. Also of interest is this older article by Robert Neff which also quotes from a 1951 Time Magazine article about Children's Day during wartime. I couldn't help remembering this photo I came across in the Life Magazine archives from the Korean war, of a medic treating an injured girl:


It's part of a series (1, 2, 3, 4).

Something more upbeat would be this video of kids playing dodgeball and GIs teaching kids to play baseball in 1948 (IE only).

It seems newspapers often use Children's Day as an opportunity to report things like "Korean children are the unhappiest in the OECD".

And related to children, AP has an article about what teachers in the US have been doing to explain to students who were toddlers when 9-11 occurred why people were cheering a man's death in the streets.

"Former native speaking teacher" busted for "smuggling" philipon

[Update: YTN's follow up is here.]

Yonhap issued the first report (out of about ten so far) today:

Former native speaking instructor caught smuggling philopon

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency drug investigation unit revealed on May 4 that D, a 27 year-old South African woman, and C, a 32 year-old who formerly worked in Korea as an English teacher, were arrested for smuggling large amounts of philipon into the country (in violation of the Drug Control Law).

According to police, on the 28th of last year [that's what it says; it was actually February 28] D left Johannesburg, South Africa with 945.1 grams of philipon hidden in an empty space in the outer cover of her luggage and entered Korea at Incheon Airport after passing through Quatar, where it was to be delivered to C, who has been charged for trying to distribute it in Korea.

The investigation found that last December D met drug dealer P in Johannesburg, who offered to give her 10,000 rand (1,700,000 won) if she delivered philipon to Korea. She received 400 US dollars and a plane ticket to Korea in order to commit the crime.

It's been revealed that C, a Nigerian English instructor who came to Korea in 2006, tried his hand at a wholesale business selling popular, fast-selling clothing from South Africa, but turned to taking part in drug smuggling when the business failed.

After receiving intelligence, police arrested D after she entered the country at Incheon Airport. C, who had been on the run for two months, was caught last month.

Police are considering measures such as putting P, who was behind the crime, on an Interpol wanted list, and are looking into the precise details of contacts C made with international drug organizations while in Korea.

A police official revealed that, "This is the first time that a native speaking instructor has tried to smuggle a large amount of philipon, rather than marijuana." "Attempts by foreigners taking the initiative in smuggling drugs are increasing, and sources of supply for philopon are diversifying.

The Simin Ilbo adds that,

The philipon D brought was worth 3.2 billion, enough to dose 32,000 people at the same time.

At the same time? Considering that philipon is the drug of choice for Koreans, does this suggest that plans were afoot to attempt to set a Guinness record in a new category?

The Chosun Ilbo has this to say about the Nigerian English teacher:

Nigerian English instructor C came to Korea in 2006 and worked in a factory in the capital area, and it was found that in 2009 he worked at a branch of a well known language hagwon for 8 months as a native speaking instructor. It was revealed that until recently C did private tutoring for 2-3 elementary and middle school students and had a wholesale business selling popular, fast-selling clothing.

So he could have been described as a 'former factory worker' or 'former wholesaler,' as opposed to 'former native speaking teacher.' Mind you, usually when a headline mentions "Former...", it's followed by a job in a position of power, or an entertainer, or an athlete (though teachers sometimes make the headlines too, such as this former teacher who tried to set on fire the elementary school which didn't renew his contract).

Beyond that quibble, why is there no mention of the fact that this guy, being Nigerian and thus not eligible to teach English on an E2 visa, was teaching illegally? Where are the police statements about the need to better filter out drug smuggling teachers and calls for hagwons to be more responsible? (Perhaps future editorials will deal with this). And beyond hagwons, it clearly says he was teaching privately, which is, simply put, illegal. But then, I guess that could suggest he wasn't a real native speaking teacher, obscuring the "native speaking teachers are drug addicts and drug smugglers" narrative Yonhap (and apparently the Chosun Ilbo, and the half dozen other media outlets) are trying to construct. Which smacks of being a little desperate on their parts, seeing as there are enough cases out there of real foreign teachers committing such crimes. On the other hand, reports of such crimes have been a little slow lately (the Incheon bust last week was the first one reported in over 8 months), and, considering English teachers are usually not the meth-taking types, who knows when another chance will come to connect smuggling a kilo of philipon to native speaking teachers, to get to print things like this:

A police official revealed that, "This is the first time that a native speaking instructor has tried to smuggle a large amount of philipon, rather than marijuana."

Classic.

We have a winner!

Foreign teacher reported arrested for drunk driving

On April 29 Newsis published the following article:

Incheon university instructor charged for driving while drunk

An American native-speaking instructor working at a university in Incheon was charged for driving his Carens while drunk.

According to police on the 29th, a 46 year-old American [working at] a university in Incheon drank at least a bottle of makgeolli at a restaurant and at 12:30 in the afternoon on April 12 drove away in his car. Police were sent out after receiving a report from a resident and arrested him.

The results of a breathalyzer test found that his blood alcohol level was 0.184%, a figure which calls for the revocation of his license.

The man stated to police that "That day I heard the news that my cousin in the U.S. had died and, feeling depressed, I drank and then drove."

I was curious about what other stories were published in April describing arrests for drunk driving, and the following were turned up:

A story about a bus driver driving 40 elementary school students on a school trip who was drunk.

A police officer arrested for causing an accident while drunk 14 years ago did so again.

A man in Jeju who was caught driving drunk without a license in a stolen vehicle.

Another police officer arrested for drunk driving.

A drunk driver who injured 5 people at a stoplight in Busan.

A drunk driver who smashed through a guardrail on a ramp on Jayu-ro in Goyang and fell quite a ways.

Also, it was reported that penalties for drunk driving (and blocking fire trucks) will be strengthened.

So it seems - from a glance at such reports at Naver over a month - that driving drunk while being a police officer, injuring people while driving drunk, or doing spectacularly stupid things while driving drunk (like driving 40 children around or committing other crimes like theft) will get reported in the media. One wonders if driving drunk while being a teacher - of any nationality - is also enough to make the news.

The only teachers or instructors reported to have been arrested for drunk driving this year, at least according to Naver, was the foreign instructor above and a Korean elementary school teacher in Cheongju, who, in a particularly "absurd" case from January, was so drunk he tried to drive the wrong car home and punched the owner of that car when the owner tried to stop him.

If you're thinking that, perhaps, Korean teachers don't get caught for drinking and driving very often, this article suggests otherwise. The statistics it provides shows that, from January 2003 to August 2005, 1059 out of 1733 crimes by Korean school teachers involved losing their license for such things as drunk driving. If today's rates are similar, that works out to an average of over 300 cases a year, or 25 per month, but four months into 2011 there's only been one news report about such an arrest.

A new cartoon!

Update: Why not put them all together?

No one is safe. No one.

Original post:
Remember the story of the trophy thieves in Itaewon from last December? As it turns out, there was more than one article written about it - I just stumbled onto another published by the Kyunghyang Sinmun at the time, which also includes the cartoon below:


The look in his eyes reminds me of this cartoon, from the Donga Ilbo two years ago:


Mind you, it's not the first time such a cartoon has appeared in the Kyunghyang Shinmun:


I think the Donga Ilbo cartoon is still the clear winner.