Drug arrests, the case of Christopher Paul Neil, and AES's invitation to an Immigration policy meeting

The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Part 1: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 2: HIV testing for foreigners in the aftermath of the 1988 Olympics (unfinished)
Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS

Part 4: "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS"

Part 5: Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes

Part 6: The Chosun Ilbo: "White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS"

Part 7: News reports on arrest of instructor link him to 'AIDS threat'

Part 8: Police, SBS and KBS highlight instructor's 'AIDS threat' while KBS interviews AES

Part 9: Drug arrests, the case of Christopher Paul Neil, and AES's invitation to an Immigration policy meeting

On August 31, 2007, Seoul Police announced that Americans on E-2 visas teaching at a well-known language academy in Gangnam had been arrested for habitually smoking marijuana, with five charged and five more about to be. By September 4 the number being investigated jumped to 23, with most of these reported to be English teachers.

The Kyonghyang Shinmun argued that this was all a part of a pattern of foreign teacher behavior, and described some of the actions being taken to control it.

Cases of drug use by foreign instructors are never ending. In March of this year, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office arrested five former and current native speaking instructors for using and selling marijuana, and in June, the Daejeon District Prosecutor's Office caught a male Australian instructor and a female Canadian instructor. In July, a Canadian instructor from Busan was caught by a customs officer after bringing in marijuana via international mail. 

There are also growing calls for the government to step in and weed out unfit instructors. Nineteen National Assembly members, including lawmaker Shin Hak-yong, proposed a “Special bill for the promotion of English education” in March this year, under which the government would manage the qualifications and recruitment of native speaking assistant teachers, but it is currently pending in the National Assembly. The 10,000 members of the 'Anti English Spectrum' cafe, which aims to expel unfit English teachers, argue as well that E-2 visas should require criminal record checks and medical certificates to check for drug use, and are collecting reports of the harm caused by unfit native speaking instructors.

Once again, AES was being quoted pushing health checks for E-2 visa holders. 

On September 5, the KBS news show In-Depth 60 Minutes [추적 60분] broadcast a report on English teachers which highlighted drug use, forged diplomas bought in Southeast Asia, and the case of John Mark Carr. Falling into the same category as this report from two years earlier, it claimed “about half of native speaking instructors are unqualified” and highlighted the need for improvement in the visa issuance system.

The same day, NoCut News posted an article (translated here) titled "Korea is a ‘depraved paradise’ for foreign English teachers" that quoted an officer with the Seoul police department’s foreign affairs division as saying of foreign English instructors that "the majority of them find it easy to seduce Korean women who want to learn English and do drugs with them."

It was amid this negativity directed at foreign teachers and growing clamor for stronger visa regulations that the case of Christopher Paul Neil came to light.

On October 8, 2007, “INTERPOL launched its public appeal to identify an unknown man photographed sexually abusing young Southeast Asian boys in images which had been posted to the Internet.” Within days, number of people contacted INTERPOL and identified the man in the photo as Canadian Christopher Paul Neil, who was then teaching English at Kwangju International School. Among those that reported him was a former coworker, a foreign teacher who posted photos of him at Dave's ESL Cafe, where posters agreed her former coworker looked similar. (More on how the investigation was carried out can be watched in a BBC documentary (Part 1, 2, 3)). 

By the time he was identified, Neil had fled Korea for Thailand, where he arrived September 11 and was caught September 19. Though Neil was not on an E-2 visa (rather, an E-7), had no criminal record or known history of drug use, nor had he committed his crimes in Korea, the news that yet another pedophile had taught in Korea led to ever greater concern surrounding foreign English teachers. A number of newspapers published editorials about the case (two are translated here). On October 18, the Seoul Sinmun published the following editorial:

[Editorial] The child molester was a native speaker teacher?

It was revealed that a child molester wanted by Interpol, about whom information was shared around the world, stayed in Korea for more than four years and served as a native-speaking teacher or English instructor at various schools and hagwons. It is terrifying to think that this heinous sex offender, who took pictures of himself sexually harassing about 10 Cambodian and Vietnamese boys aged 6 to their early teens and posted them on the Internet, has lived a life in which he constantly encountered children and teenagers in Korea. In August of last year, it was revealed that a man in his 40s who made headlines in the US as a suspect in the rape and murder of Little Miss Colorado had also worked as an English instructor in Korea. Korea has been a "dupe" for a long time, allowing foreigners who speak English to get jobs easily and treating them well, but with this, we really can’t help but worry whether Korea will become a "paradise for criminals from English speaking nations."

The reason why even criminals thrive in Korea is because the supply and demand for native-speaking English teachers is not balanced. The enthusiasm for English learning is so overheated that it is even called a "frenzy," but, as there is a huge shortage of native-speaking teachers, foreigners who have not been verified are indiscriminately hired. According to the data released yesterday by National Assembly Representative Min Byeong-du of the United New Party, 106 out of 2,970 native speaking teachers working in elementary, middle, and high schools do not have a bachelor's degree. With the schools being in this state, we can guess what the scene in hagwons would be like.

Currently, the Ministry of Education, local Offices of Education, and individual schools (private schools) are in charge of verifying native speaking teachers when they are hired. Groundbreaking supplementary institutional measures such as unifying verification agencies and training verification experts should be prepared as soon as possible.

The Joongang Ilbo opened its editorial with the following paragraph:

The insecurity of school parents concerning native speaker teachers and instructors is growing by the day. This is because the teachers’ shameless crimes are growing. Just a couple of days ago, a Canadian wanted by Interpol for sexually molesting small children in Southeast Asia fled abroad after working as an English teacher in Korea as police moved in for the arrest. A while back, there were incidents of a teacher molesting children and a group of teachers smoking marijuana. There must be even more crimes that have yet to be revealed. It’s time to hurry and formulate measures.

Five days later, on October 23, 2007, the Ministry of Justice hosted "A Meeting with Experts and Related Organizations regarding Foreign Native Speaker Conversation Teaching (E-2) Teachers." Invited to this meeting were officials from the Ministry of Justice, the foreign-policy division of the Immigration Office, representatives from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Director of the Association of Foreign Language Academies, and Lee Eun-ung, chairman of the Citizens' Movement to Expel Illegal Foreign Language Teachers, or Anti-English Spectrum.


Here's the post he put up at Anti-English Spectrum right after the meeting:


As Lee described it, he

emphasized that health check reports, [and] criminal offense reports should be included in documents required when native speaker teachers enter the country. Related organizations expressed agreement and said that these would be reflected in policies.

The government wasted no time in attempting to legislate these policy changes. On October 24, 2007, the very next day after the immigration policy meeting to which Lee Eun-ung had been invited, the following bill (number 7642) was submitted to the National Assembly by ruling party representative Shin Hak-yong:

Bill to Partially Amend the Immigration Act

(Proposed by Shin Hak-yong)

Sponsored by Shin Hak-yong and 11 others

Reason for Proposal

Nowadays, the number of foreigners working in Korea is increasing, but a good many have previous convictions for drug and sexual crimes or carry infectious diseases. As we require measures to deal with the threat they pose to our society’s public order and our people’s health, we herein prepare the legal basis to require that foreigners applying for an employment visa submit a criminal background check and a health certificate.

Main Content

If a foreigner who intends to enter the country for the purpose of employment applies for a visa, the foreigner may be required to submit a criminal record inquiry and a health examination certificate issued by their home country (newly established Article 8 (3)).

Partial Amendment to the Immigration Act

Part of the Immigration Act is amended as follows.

Paragraph 3 of Article 8 shall be changed to Paragraph 4, and Paragraph 3 of the same Article shall be newly established as follows.

③ When a foreigner who wants to enter the country for the purpose of employment applies for a visa, the foreigner may be asked to submit a criminal record inquiry and a health examination certificate issued by the country they to which they belong.

Addenda

This Act shall come into force from the date of promulgation.

Getting invited to the policy meeting clearly shows how successful AES's media campaign had been, and though Lee didn't make it clear in the above post at AES's site (nor is it clear in the language of the bill), the health check reports would ultimately include tests for HIV. While criminal record checks should long have been included in visa regulations, and enough teachers had been arrested for marijuana to not make the drug test requirement particularly surprising, all of the negative articles connecting English teachers with AIDS were the result of efforts by Anti-English Spectrum, so the inclusion of HIV tests in the new E-2 visa requirements was no doubt seen as a victory.

Anti-English Spectrum's campaign against the phantom menace of foreign English teachers with AIDS, carried forward on the internet, in the media, in petitions to government agencies, and finally at the meeting which decided the new E-2 visa policy, had succeeded, and the fruits of its members' efforts would become clear when the government announced the policy days later.

Police, SBS and KBS highlight instructor's 'AIDS threat' while KBS interviews AES

The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Part 1: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 2: HIV testing for foreigners in the aftermath of the 1988 Olympics (unfinished)
Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS

Part 4: "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS"

Part 5: Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes

Part 6: The Chosun Ilbo: "White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS"

Part 7: News reports on arrest of instructor link him to 'AIDS threat'

Part 8: Police, SBS and KBS highlight instructor's 'AIDS threat' while KBS interviews AES

Throughout the day on July 2, 2007, news broadcasts had reported about arrests of foreign teachers, including 'A,' who had been placed on a blacklist; some print or online media mentioned that he had also 'threatened his ex-girlfriend with AIDS' (see parts 6 and 7), but SBS decided that A and his 'AIDS threat' should be a part of their report during the evening news, and even threw in a bitterly sarcastic title to boot:

Faked backgrounds, molestation... 'Wonderful native speaking instructors'

'Wonderful instructors'

Native speaking English instructors taking advantage of the English education fever are breathtaking as they take over. Cases of faked university diplomas are commonplace, and students have also been molested.

Kim Hyeon-u reports:

In April 2001 Australian A received a conversation instruction visa and entered Korea.

However his attitude towards teaching was insincere and in November that year he was stripped of his visa because he molested a young student.

[Coworker: "...hit them with paper and not go to class, and would read the palms of female high school students..."]

Though hagwons had gone so far as to put up a blacklist some hagwons overlooked this and because A entered Korea on a tourist visa he was able to continue working as an instructor.

Last year when a Korean girlfriend he had been dating for a year wanted to break up with him he also threatened her that she might have caught AIDS.

'AIDS threat email'

The report continued, saying police also caught three other instructors including S, a Canadian who got a fake university diploma from a broker on the internet. They were unqualified, having only graduated from high school and only having experience working in factories or restaurants, but were still hired by hagwons that didn't check their backgrounds. Though it's easy enough to get an E-2 visa with a university degree, there's no method to check for fake degrees, in part part because due to privacy issues, foreign universities won't release personal information. The report ended with:

Police have arrested and detained three unqualified foreign instructors, including the Australian, A, and have also booked seven hagwon owners who hired them.

KBS also reported about the arrests of teachers numerous times throughout the day, such as in a report titled "Unqualified English teacher arrests":

Other reports included this one (video / text) later in the day, and this one appearing in a nightly news round up the next day. These merely showed arrests, along with images of the arrested Australian. 

A KBS new report on July 4, two days later, however, was all Anti English Spectrum could have hoped for and more. Appearing during "아침뉴스타임" (Morning News Time), it was titled "Native speaking instructors, 'from forging diplomas to molestation'".

 From forging diplomas to molestation' 

Unqualified native speaking instructors who are taking advantage of the English education craze abound. University diplomas and transcripts have been forged, and even it's even gone so far that students have been molested.

Reporter Im Se-heum, not long ago foreign instructors were caught for taking drugs. This problem with the low aspects of native speaking instructors isn't going away, is it?

"Yes, from forging degrees to molesting students or having alcohol problems, there are many unqualified native speaking English instructors.

"However, due to high demand, unqualified instructors are openly teaching students in hagwons. [...] We report on the reality of native speaking English instructors in Korea.

The report told the story of S and how he faked his degree. A police officer then described how one teacher worked in fast food, the other in a factory before coming to Korea and becoming instructors. The hagwon passed the buck to immigration, who gave the teacher the visa, while immigration replied it wasn't easy to confirm foreign degrees.

A gyopo from the US who has taught English for 5 years in Korea described the problems with the English craze, such as some hagwons which change the nationalities of their instructors on their promotional material, in which Russian dancers are disguised as Americans and Pakistanis are disguised as Hispanic Americans. "If you're white, everything is okay. We show parents that (at the hagwon) we are using white instructors." He also explained that due to demand there were many native speaking instructors who were not qualified and whose English skills were poor. He added, "There are instructors who do not even know the passive form, who tell very sexual jokes to children, who without hesitation tell stories denigrating Korea." The report continued:

What's worse is that native speaking instructors have even molested students.

At the end of last year, 31 year-old Australian A was told by his girlfriend that she was breaking up with him and wouldn't meet him, and after that she got continuous threats via cell phone message and email. A's ex-girlfriend was unable to endure this and contacted police, and is still afraid of A.

"AIDS threat email"

A's Ex-girlfriend: "Frankly, he frightened me. I was frightened of what [his revenge] would come to. I didn't want it to go any further."

The police investigation found that A had already had been fired from a hagwon for a molestation level of physical contact with students, for which his name had already been posted on the blacklist of the 'Korean native speaking instructor recruiting association.'

At a different hagwon which he worked at until recently, a similar incident occurred, but A claimed it was due to cultural differences.

Australian native speaking instructor: "I touched them like an Australian teacher would, pat them on the shoulder, "Good job," or, you know, "See you later." Of course I'm not guilty, I touch them on shoulder, it's totally wrong [to say I molested them]. The problem is, Hoju munhwa, Daehanminguk munwha is not same."

A was also able to find any job he liked on a tourist visa. One hagwon urgently needed an instructor and prepared everything else up to housing, but of course confirming visa and ID was to be done later.

Hagwon official: I got a room for A. A long-time teacher suddenly didn't show up and since it was urgent, classes were the first priority, and within 3 or 4 days he was to apply for an E-2 visa but didn't.

Since there is a lack of native speaking instructors, hagwons are in no position to quibble over this and that. Moreover, parents prefer certain races or nationalities more than ability in instructors.

Hagwon official: "In order to have pronunciation perfectly like a native speaker, Korean people only want native speakers. They don't want Asians. The mothers themselves..."

With things the way they are, there are arguments that the management of native speaking instructors needs to be strengthened.

Manager of the internet cafe to expel illegal native speaking instructors: "There are English instructors who came to Korea on a tourist visa to work. Things like that are not easy. First, strong legal regulations are needed to punish them, and it's most important that they be made to include a criminal record check and health certificate when they apply for an E-2 visa."

Within the English education craze, due to the prejudice that if you're a native speaker, then your [teaching] ability will unconditionally be good, unqualified native speaking instructors are able to teach with impunity.

More thorough verification is needed for them.

What becomes clear from this report that the example of the "AIDS threat email" that also appeared in the SBS report was actually printed out and displayed by police at a press conference, so they also played a role in promoting the 'AIDS threat' story. But KBS took things a step further by interviewing Lee Eun-ung of AES and amplifying his message that it was "most important that [foreign teachers] be made to include a criminal record check and health certificate when they apply for an E-2 visa", though it's not really clear what that had to do with the those teaching on tourist visas mentioned at the start of that sentence. As always, "unqualified native speaking instructors...able to teach with impunity" are described as a threat, but what made one "unqualified" was never defined. Initially AES targeted those on tourist visas, but, realizing little could be done policy-wise to control what tourists do in their spare time after entering the country, they instead turned their attention to those on E-2 visas, since they could be targeted, and KBS spread their message on the nightly news and stated "More thorough verification is needed for [E-2s]." (This would not be the last time KBS would turn to AES for quotes in anti-foreign teacher hit pieces.)

With some help from the police and major broadcasters like SBS and KBS, AES's linking of foreign teachers, AIDS, and the need to vet them with health checks had become a part of public discourse. All that was needed was some crisis that could be used to justify implementing such checks, and it was not long in coming.

News reports on arrest of instructor link him to 'AIDS threat'

The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Part 1: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 2: HIV testing for foreigners in the aftermath of the 1988 Olympics (unfinished)
Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS

Part 4: "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS"

Part 5: Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes

Part 6: The Chosun Ilbo: "White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS"

Part 7: News reports on arrest of instructor link him to 'AIDS threat'

A month or so after having his "AIDS threat email" highlighted in several articles by the Chosun Ilbo in May 2007, much to the delight of Anti English Spectrum, the Australian instructor who sent it found himself in the hands of the authorities. As AES leader Lee Eun-ung wrote in an op-ed article published in February 2009,

After this writer and others pursued him with the cooperation of relevant authorities, he was finally arrested by police in the capital region after living at a guest house in Seoul.

Whether or not he was actually involved in catching the culprit, the content of the Chosun articles carrying Anti English Spectrum's 'White foreign English teacher = AIDS' propaganda was referred to when his capture was reported by numerous media outlets. On the morning of July 2, 2007, NoCut News published the first report about the arrest of several foreign English instructors, including A:

Unbelievable foreign English instructors - 'From molestation to stalking'
A bunch of unqualified foreign English instructors caught for 'forgery of well-known overseas university diplomas'

Police have arrested a bunch of unqualified foreign English instructors who went as far as forging well-known overseas university diplomas in order to work in Korea as English instructors. Among those arrested, some were fired for flirting with students and after being hired again as an instructor, stalked Korean women.

'I' is a Canadian who has worked at a foreign language hagwon in Anyang for more than three years. He graduated from a famous university in Canada but all his background consisted of was working in a factory after graduating high school.

Canadian J made tens of millions of won working as an instructor at an English hagwon in Gangnam in Seoul, but only worked at a fast food restaurant after graduating from a junior college.

The article then described how it was possible to get a job and an E-2 visa with a fake diploma, and the connivance of recruiters and employers in this. It then continued:

For some foreign instructors, it's not just English proficiency but conduct which is a problem.

Australian English instructor A was fired for habitual excessive physical contact with students and KFTRA (Korean native speaking instructor recruiting association) put him on their blacklist, but he was openly hired as an English instructor. What's more, A bore a grudge against the Korean girlfriend who broke up with him and who had a different boyfriend and cursed her, saying "Last year in the Philippines I had sex with a prostitute and now you have caught AIDS," and also stalked her via email and phone.   [...]

The Foreign Affairs Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has arrested three teachers including the Australian A on suspicion of forging diplomas to work as English instructors, and booked I (29) without detention, and has also booked five people without detention including Mr. Lee, the owner of a employment agency which arranged jobs for instructors despite knowing they were unqualified.

During the police investigation they stated that "We came to Korea because we heard that in Korea that you can easily work as an instructor and make lots of money."

YTN then broadcast a news report about the arrests at noon (which was repeated a least twice):

As ever, there are foreign instructors with forged degrees and ineligible visas

"Foreign instructors caught with forged diplomas"

It's been revealed that there are still unqualified foreigners teaching English in places like hagwons or youth centers.

And there are still incidents of using fake degrees to get E-2 visas, which are given to native speaking instructors.

In then explained the blacklist [above], how people got on it ('taught while drunk,' 'fraud'), but said that some of them were still able to teach, and that some did so on tourist visas.

32 year old A from Australia was caught for teaching at a hagwon without an E-2 visa.

A, whose name is on the blacklist where he is criticized for behaviour approaching molestation of students, has despite this taught students at various hagwons since 2001.

  [One of many shots of A at the police station.]

[Interview: A, foreign English instructor.]

"Why didn't you get an E-2 visa?"
"Basically, I didn't know how long I was going to stay in Korea, so I thought, I will work for a couple of months, and if I like the school, then they will give me an E-2 visa."

It looked briefly at the E-2 guidelines and how diplomas could be faked, and then criticized the attitudes of hagwon owners who said they were too busy to check. It ended by saying that the damage caused by unfit instructors was shifted by irresponsible hagwons to the students.

The YTN report did not mention the 'AIDS threat.'

Yonhap, on the other hand, was more than happy to put the 'AIDS threat' in its sub-title in the article in published at noon (republished by the Chosun Ilbo and Joongang Ilbo), which reiterated the story of I and J, who it said made 30 million and 60 million won, respectively, and told the story of the third teacher, a Canadian, S, who bought a diploma from the University of Manitoba for $300 in 2003 and made 100 million won working at a hagwon in Songpa-gu on an E-2 visa.

A bunch of foreign English instructors with forged degrees caught
Even threatened "You've caught AIDS" to an ex girlfriend

[...]

Police also arrested Australian English instructor A (32) for threatening a Korean girlfriend who broke up with him as if she had caught AIDS (contravening the Law related to punishing violent behaviour).

A, who was dumped by his Korean girlfriend who he dated for about a year, is supected of calling or sending her emails six times since last December saying "I had sex with two prostitutes in the Philippines. I hope you gets AIDS too."

Police said that A graduated from a 4 year university in Australia and was issued an E-2 visa normally but was put on a blacklist by the Korean native speaking instructor recruiting association (KFTRA) for arousing criticism and being fired for molesting students.

It ended by mentioning the five Korean brokers who were arrested. Needless to say, with the Yonhap wire service highlighting the AIDS threat, other news outlets soon picked it up.

An hour later, the Kyunghyang Sinmun published a report which began just like the YTN story and, like the Yonhap article, told the story of S, I ,and J, before getting to A.

More foreign instructors with forged degrees and 'zero conduct' caught

[...]

There was also a problem with some foreign instructor's attitudes.

Police also arrested Australian A (32) on suspicion of threatening a Korean girlfriend who broke up with him, saying "Since you had sex with me you caught AIDS."

A graduated from a 4 year university in Australia and was issued an E-2 visa normally but was put on the native speaking instructor blacklist for being fired for habitual excessive physical contact with students.

It also ended by mentioning the five Korean brokers who were arrested.

An MBN article published a little later, titled "Foreign instructors caught for forging degrees," mentioned only the three foreign teachers caught for forged degrees.

Later that evening, after 9 pm, MBC broadcast a report about the arrests.

'Low quality instructors'

"Native speaking teacher, Low quality teachers"

Anchor: Even now such low quality instructors are rampant in English hagwons.

Lee Ji-seon reports on native speaking instructors who make a habit of forging degrees and even molesting students.

This is a children's English hagwon in Gunpo, Gyeonggi-do. At the beginning of this year the hagwon got a flood of complaints from parents.

An instructor from Australia was molesting children.

Hagwon owner: "Children said he wouldn't let go when shaking hands. And it increased to two or three kids repeatedly and I said absolutely do not touch them."

This instructor had already been fired for molestation but was able to get a job at this hagwon without much difficulty.

This is because the instructor hid the fact he was fired and also no prior check was done by the hagwon.

Suspect: "Munhwa [culture] is different. In Hoju [Australia] it is okay to touch the child. I didn’t touch in a sexual way."

It then quickly mentioned the Canadian instructor in Anyang with the fake degree who was hired even though his visa had expired and a hagwon owner who said "I don't ask for detailed facts about their academic past because time is short."

Among such native speaking instructors there are many unqualified people involved in diploma forgery and molestation, and even alcoholics.

But because there are not enough instructors, hagwons will overlook this and so even today they are openly teaching students.

More news articles followed, some of which made reference to the fact that he had 'threatened his Korean girlfriend with AIDS,' including the Segye Ilbo ("Unqualified Shameless English Teachers... Faked Backgrounds and Molestation") and the Chosun Ilbo: ("Native Speaking English Teacher Pattern). 

More televised reports were to come. Anti-English Spectrum claimed they contributed to the several of these reports, and among those that followed were reports that not only highlighted the "AIDS threat email" but also interviewed Anti-English Spectrum head Lee Eun-ung.

The Chosun Ilbo promotes AES with articles like "White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS"

The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Part 1: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 2: HIV testing for foreigners in the aftermath of the 1988 Olympics (unfinished)
Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS

Part 4: "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS"

Part 5: Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes

Part 6: The Chosun Ilbo: "White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS"

After six months of petitions by Anti-English Spectrum members to ROK government ministries calling for health and criminal record checks for E-2 visa holders, on April 5, 2007, a post appeared at AES by its leader, Lee Eun-ung, titled "Illegal Native Speaking English Teachers reported":

It noted tips on several foreign English teachers. Among them was 'A', from Australia, who was said to be responsible for an "AIDS scare against a Korean person" and who had re-entered the country and was staying in a guest house. As AES head Lee Eun-ung wrote in an op-ed article published by the Weekly Kyunghang in February 2009:

In spring of 2007, our group received a tip from a woman who wanted help. A teacher from Australia threatened her, saying he’d had sex without a condom in southeast Asia and she should be careful of AIDS, too. The tip also said the teacher was loitering around her place, trying to terrify her. 

One result of this tip was Anti English Spectrum contacting Sports Chosun, where reporter Kim Yun-hui penned one of the more blatantly xenophobic anti-foreign English instructor articles of this time period, which was published around noon on May 27, 2007. This was followed by chosun.com and the Chosun Ilbo, where articles appeared on May 27 and 28, 2007. Getting this story into one of Korea's biggest newspapers was certainly a propaganda success for Anti English Spectrum, especially in identifying the race of the culprit:

From molestation to AIDS threats – Shock at the perverted acts of some foreign instructors

Beware the 'Ugly White Instructor'

Put on the KITA blacklist... Unfit instructors reported by [online] cafe as well



◇ Left: The chatting site profile posted by foreign instructor T, who works in Andong

Right: Email by foreign instructor A to his ex girlfriend which threatens and describes the possibility of AIDS infection.

◇ KITA (Korean Native Speaking Instructor Recruiting Association) blacklist.

People have been shocked as the perverted acts taken too far by white foreign instructors have become known.

It's been revealed that some white foreign instructors use the fact that Korean women are enthusiastic to study English, and that they are preferred to black instructors, to compulsively commit molestation and harassment.

A Korean woman, Ms. Kim (31). recently met Australian native speaker instructor "A" (30) at a friend's birthday party and entered into a romantic relationship with him. However she became frightened by A's excessive obsession and crippled appearance and soon told him she was breaking up with him.

The vindictive A realized that he might be infected with AIDS and forced Kim to have sex with him. On February 7 he sent her an e-mail saying, "Last year in the Philippines I was drunk and had sex with two girls without a condom. After that I came to Korea and had sex with you without a condom. I was too scared to tell you. I feel sorry about it. I didn't even get (AIDS) tested. When I think about what you did to me (breaking up), however, I feel very satisfied. If you were nice, I would feel guilty. I'm not making this up, it's all true. I'm lucky I can get a cheap AIDS test in Bangkok."

KITA (the Korean Native Speaking Instructor Recruiting Association) put A on the blacklist on its homepage and warned that he was "A person who often puts his hand on students' bodies. It reaches the level of molestation, so absolutely do not hire him. He was fired due to the strong complaints of students and parents." However, it is known that A is currently working at a hagwon in Seoul's Hyehwa-dong.

As well, in Masan, Gyeongsangnam-do, American instructor “B” (40), who has been working at an English hagwon and an elementary school for one year, has been accused of harassing Korean women while pretending to be unmarried despite being married with four children. The victimized women, fearful of retaliation, all refused to be interviewed but gave this evaluation of B: "He has a very disordered private life, always drinking and sleeping with groups of women, and cannot be a role model for elementary school students.”

At P High School in the U.S., where B worked in 2005, he was fired for molesting a 17-year old female student. A student from that school, K, attested that, "At a pep rally a female student hit him in the face with a pie, and B grabbed her waist and rubbed his face between her breasts. Then he was fired."

Another instructor, T (43), who lives in Andong, came under fire by netizens for introducing himself on a chatting site by writing on his profile that his "favorite thing" was "looking at the glistening sweat on the curves of a woman's breasts, thighs, back and ass." As well, under "What you like to do in your free time," instructor T wrote, "sex."

Ms. Hong (28), who works as an English instructor in Busan, said, "90% of the native speakers are white. This is the result of Korean people's racist tendencies and the greed of hagwons who try to improve their image." "White instructors tend to think that 'it's easy to fool Korean women who approach me to learn English (It's easy to have sex with them).'"

Citizens infuriated by the explicitly sexual remarks and molestation of such white foreign instructors have started a voluntary movement to improve things. A portal cafe with 14,419 members (Anti-English Spectrum, cafe.naver.com/englishpectrum.cafe) is actively carrying out a "citizen"s movement to expel illegal foreign language instructors" by reporting unfit foreign instructors and holding joint investigations with police. Cafe manager Lee (ID 엠투 (M2)) said, "This year, too, we are concentrating on making an issue of, and informing [the public about], low, lascivious, unfit native speaking instructors."

Reporter Kim Yun-hui

The email in question is here:

Twelve hours later, in the early morning of May 28, 2007, the Chosun Ibo published the following article:

White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS
Retaliation for being dumped after dating

Some native speaking instructors who habitually molest or sexually harrass Korean women are arousing criticism. Last year Ms. Kim (31) met Australian native speaker instructor Y (30) at a friend's birthday party and dated him. However a few months later she told him she was breaking up with him. But in February Ms. Kim received an email which said "Last year in the Philippines I had sex with two girls without a condom. After that I came to Korea and had sex with you without a condom. I was too scared to tell you. I feel sorry about it. [See photo.] He said, "I didn't  get  an (AIDS) test. When I consider what you did to me (breaking up), [I think] you deserve to get AIDS. Therefore I'm safisfied. I'm not making this up, it's all true."

Korea Foreign Teacher Recruiting Association (KFTRA) put Y on their blacklist. On this blacklist are the names of 68 poor foreign instructors who have been reported for things like sexual harassment or contract breaches. It says of Y, "He often puts his hands on students' bodies. It reaches the level of molestation, so absolutely do not hire him."

The KFTRA said that currently, of the 20,000 to 30,000 foreign instructors working in our country, approximately 10 percent of them had been fired due to serious problems such as molestation or refusing to teach classes.

Reporter Son Jin-seok

And just before noon on May 28, the Chosun Ilbo's English-language site posted this article:

Australian English Teacher Blacklisted for AIDS Threat

Allegations of improper conduct against expatriate English instructors in Korea refuse to go away. The Korea Foreign Teacher Recruiting Association estimates that about 10 percent of the 20,000-30,000 foreign instructors working here are fired after they were found to have committed sexual improprieties or refused to teach classes.

It cites the case of a Korean woman identified as Kim who says she met an English instructor from Australia at a friend's birthday party. Kim went out with him for several months. When she broke up with him, the Australian sent her an e-mail in February saying he had had sex with two prostitutes in the Philippines without using condoms in 2006 and Kim had been his next date. He said he was so afraid that he could not tell her about it, and had not had an HIV test. The instructor said Kim "deserved" to get AIDS considering what she did to him.

The KFTRA has added the instructor to a blacklist of 68 foreign instructors accused of sexual harassment and contract breaches. The association told institutes not to hire the Australian.

In an earlier case, an American instructor who worked in a high school in Yongin made headlines when he was fired for teaching students how to smoke marihuana and said Japanese women "are the best."

That article translates in the nicest way the above Chosun Ilbo article, and adds the last paragraph in for good measure.

The teachers blacklist in question at the website of Korea Foreign Teacher Recruitment Association (KFTRA) was reported on by the Korea Times on August 26, 2006. As the article notes, posting the instructors' names online in that manner made the association vulnerable to libel suits. 

In the interest of fairness, a blogger at this time contacted the (clearly visible) sender of the email and got these responses:

(Email 1)
The whole thing was extremely unfair. I was just the victim of a vindictive, venegeful Korean woman. I would sue, but this is Korea. Please also mention her name, ***, and the fact that she has slept with every man in Itaewon. She was cheating on me, not the other way round. She loves hurting men. I regret ever meeting her. Your help would be appreciated.
(Email 2)
As this whole thing is so blatantly unfair, make sure you mention her name,***, mine was exsposed, why shouldn’t hers. And the sneakly, manipulative nature of the girl. You have no idea how cruel she is. She’s evil. I know, I lived with her for 3 months. She loves hurting men, I could never work out why. She even had an ex canadian boyfriend put in jail for hash. She knew he had some in his appartment and when he cheated on her, she called the police. This is not a nice girl we’re talking about. Just let the truth be known for justice’s sake.

While commentary on English-language blogs and forums at the time found little sympathy for the writer of the email(s), there was a great deal of criticism directed at the Chosun Ilbo for focusing on its author's race and for hiding the recipient's name but not the sender's.

While these articles garnered a fair amount of publicity for Anti-English Spectrum's campaign to portray foreign teachers as AIDS threats, their true success would come a month later when A was arrested and major TV networks aired the "AIDS threat email" on the evening news.

Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes

The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Part 1: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 2: HIV testing for foreigners in the aftermath of the 1988 Olympics (unfinished)
Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS

Part 4: "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS"

Part 5: Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes

On September 18, a post appeared at the Anti-English Spectrum site heralding their success in publicizing the narrative that foreign English teachers were AIDS threats, titled "Breaknews (AIDS Foreign teacher) wide distribution!!!"


"Today it's come! Till now [the idea that English teacher are AIDS infected] hadn't risen from the internet! The report's in terminals, convenience stores, subways!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It should be noted that, much as they had used posts found on an HIV counselling website written by women who were worried about HIV infection from sexual encounters with foreign teachers to promote such fears, this picture, which appeared at the top of the article, is of President George W. Bush's former U.S. Global AIDS coordinator Randall L. Tobias being publicly tested for HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia in an effort to fight AIDS stigma. In the article, however, the photo was used to create the exact opposite effect.

In many ways, this was nothing new. BreakNews had already published five articles about foreign English teachers that summer; the first article focused on Anti-English Spectrum, while the rest quoted a 'Mr. Kim' or 'Mr. K' - a member of the 'movement to counter low quality foreign teachers' - as an informant. 'Mr. Kim' was described as being 37 years old - the same age as Lee Eun-ung - and in the second BreakNews article, he could be seen in a pixelated photo.


On October 29, 2006, that BreakNews article was reposted at Anti-English Spectrum (above), and in the comments, members thanked 'Mr. Kim'. 'M2' - 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'." In a Breaknews article published two days later, Mr. K also made comments, and was described as "Low quality native speaking instructor expulsion site manager Mr. K," suggesting once again this was a pseudonym for Lee Eun-ung.

The September 18, 2006 BreakNews article, "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS," ended with an interview with 'Mr. K' titled "Protection of human rights first, behind the protection of citizens; Enhance the E-2 visa, to reduce risk of HIV infection." In it, 'Mr. K' stated the following:

It is a fact that we are now exposed to more open sexual cultures and more dangerous situations, and [Korean] women who have met with foreigners are crying out over their anxieties regarding AIDS. It is inevitable that the levels of danger will increase when we consider the teachers who have entered on tourist visas, or illegally sojourning foreigner teachers that related authorities are not even capable of keeping track of.

[In response to those who would call his perspective "exclusivist/xenophobic"] This is not an exclusivist/xenophobic view; this is a matter of the survival of Korean women. They [foreigners] have entered Korea and are enjoying personal rights, but if Korean women are being exposed to the threat of AIDS, isn’t it right for the government to at least put some effort into blocking the source of the problem through [enhancing] the E-2 visa requirements?

Armed with this article and the interview with Lee, Lee and other members of AES set out to convince relevant government agencies that foreign teachers with HIV were a potential problem, one that could be solved by imposing HIV tests upon E-2 visa holders, and they cited the news article Lee had contributed to as proof that there was a problem. 

The next day, September 19, a petition to the Ministry of Justice asking for health checks for E-2 visa holders was posted at Anti English Spectrum. Nine days later, a petition to the Ministry of Justice asking for mandatory HIV tests and criminal record checks for foreign English teachers on E-2 visas was posted: 

This is the complaint I filed with the Ministry of Justice today.

Gaon (rightnation)

Application Date: 2006.09.28 

Title:

Please strengthen E-2 qualification requirements to make known the criminal record and health status of foreign English instructors!

Contents:

A September 18, 2006 Break News story titled "80% of those using the HIV test center for foreigners are native speaking instructors,” revealed that even Koreans suffer serious harm due to the sexual behavior of some foreign instructors.

To quote the newspaper article, the center explains that a significant number of foreigners visiting the AIDS Counseling and Examination Center for Foreigners (hereafter referred to as the Center) located in Seoul are white-collar, and a frequent posts by worried Korean women at an AIDS Counseling Center online bulletin board reveal that they are wondering if they have caught AIDS after having sex with foreigners, adding to the seriousness.

In this situation, it was confirmed that the occupation of a large number of foreigners residing in Korea is English instruction, and many of those English instructors enjoy sexual relations with not just one, but several Korean women. In light of these direct appeals by Korean women, it can be concluded that women are being defenselessly exposed to AIDS.

Also, on September 16, a suspect in the 1996 murder of Little Miss Colorado John Bennett Ramsey was arrested after 10 years, and the suspect in this mysterious case was an American named John Mark Carr, who lived in Thailand. Even though the John Mark Carr in question was a teacher who was shockingly dismissed in 2001 for possession of child pornography,, he worked as a native English teacher for children in Korea in 2002. (“Saengbangsong Seven Days,” Episode 159, aired 2006-08-25).

Indeed, looking at these two cases, it seems that the current laws of the Republic of Korea are too lenient and lax regarding foreign English instructors.

Unfortunately, however, there is no way to legally regulate these foreign instructors under the current laws. When applying for an E-2 visa, to be eligible foreigners from Western countries need only to show they have graduated from a 4-year university, even if they haven’t submitted a criminal record check or a health record that can confirm their health status.

It is also regrettable that some insist only on the human rights of foreign instructors while caring little for protecting their own citizens.

I appeal to the Immigration Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: When issuing an E-2 visa to foreign instructors, please make it mandatory to submit a health check and criminal record check so that their health status and whether or not they have committed a crime can be known. It is only natural that teachers who teach our children and students should at least reveal that they are not criminals and have no health problems.

It should be noted that the SBS 'Seven Days' report "Unverified foreign English teachers are a danger to children" is a report that Anti English Spectrum also claims credit for.

AES members would continue to post several petitions sent to the Ministry of Justice asking for health tests for either HIV, STDs or drugs, as well as criminal record checks, until the end of the year. Other petitions would be sent in June 2007 which made reference to the episode of "Pandora's Box" (known for its shrill caption, "Illegal foreign instructors are violating Korean women!!!")  that they contributed to.

In just a month and a half, Lee twisted the meaning of two brief references to English teachers voluntarily getting tested for HIV in order to connect the 'problem of native speaking English teachers' to AIDS, found frightened women and spread internet rumours in the form of a horror story to try to give this claim more substance, got a lengthy story presenting this view published in online (BreakNews) and newspaper (Inside Story) media, and then cited the articles or news stories they contributed to in petitions to the Ministry of Justice. Less than a year later, they would find far more popular newspapers willing to publicize their cause.

Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS

  The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Part 1: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 2: HIV testing for foreigners in the aftermath of the 1988 Olympics (unfinished)
Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS (2006)

Part 4: "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS" (2006)

Part 5: Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes (2006)

Part 6: The Chosun Ilbo: "White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS" (2007)

Part 7: News reports on arrest of instructor link him to 'AIDS threat' (2007)

Part 8: Police, SBS and KBS highlight instructor's 'AIDS threat' while KBS interviews AES (2007)

Part 9: Drug arrests, the case of Christopher Paul Neil, and AES's invitation to an Immigration policy meeting (2007)

Part 10: "Illegal native speaking instructors will no longer be tolerated": the E-2 policy memo is issued (2007)

Part 11: Challenging the E-2 requirements by petitioning the NHRCK (2009)

Part 12: Anti-English Spectrum's response to the NHRCK petition (2009)

Part 13: Bill 3356 attempts to legislate HIV and drug tests for all foreign workers (2009)

Part 14: The battle over HIV tests for foreign English teachers (2009-2010)

Part 15: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges E-2 visa HIV tests be dropped (2010)

Part 16: The ROK lifts all HIV testing of foreigners... except for E-2 visa holders (2010)

Part 17: The Constitutional Court rules on the Vandom case (2011)

Part 18: MBC’s “Shocking report on the realities of relationships with foreigners” brings up HIV (2012)

Part 19: Journal of Korean Law article about HIV testing of foreign teachers (2012)

Part 20: Mandatory HIV Testing Policy Challenged at the International Level (2012)

Part 21: Press release regarding the CERD case (2012)

Part 22: CERD case (and other) updates  (2012)

Part 23: Preliminary results of the foreign teacher HIV testing survey (2013) 

Part 24: Korea Herald asks "Is HIV testing of foreign teachers here to stay?" (2013) 

Part 25: HIV and drug testing for Korean Government Scholarship Program applicants (2014)

Part 26: CERD rules that HIV tests for foreign teachers in Korea are discriminatory (2015)

Part 27: NHRCK recommends ROK government stop mandatory HIV testing of foreign English teachers (2016) 

Part 28: APHA urges UNAIDS to revoke ROK’s status as a country with no HIV-related travel restrictions (2017)

Part 29: Justice Ministry announces it has ended HIV tests for English teachers (2017)

Part 30: Yonhap: Controversy over discrimination prompts Korea to stop E-2 HIV tests (2017)

Part 31: Fringe Christian anti-gay group opposes ending HIV tests for E-2s (2017)

Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s foreigners on entertainment visas (known as the E-6 visa after 1993) needed to provide HIV-free papers upon arrival or face HIV testing in Korea after an amendment to the AIDS Act came into effect in 1989, and in 1994 this requirement was expanded to foreign workers entering Korea to become "industrial trainees"; those in the country already would be subject to in-country tests, and new arrivals would need to submit HIV-free papers or be tested on arrival.

By the mid 1990s a new group of foreigners in Korea became increasingly visible, especially as the EPIK program began placing them in public schools - foreign English teachers. One politician who took early note of them was future Democratic Party leader Kim Han-gil, who wrote in mid 1997 of illegal teachers, "As they enter the country on tourist visas, they do not have to take AIDS or drug tests." He also later said in regard to these teachers that "Elementary school students are defenseless before things like AIDS," and "That they don't even have to take drug or AIDS tests in particular and are entering the country and teaching children in hagwons or homes is a serious problem."

Though immigration statistics revealed 7,607 teachers on E-2 visas at the end of 1997, the financial crisis that year would have seen many leave by year's end. Including illegal teachers, there may have been 10,000 or more teachers before the crisis (I'd estimate around 9,000 on E-2 visas), but Rep. Kim estimated that there were 70,000. In his comments on the need for drug and AIDS testing, and in saying that "the reason white men really like Korea is to chase after Korean women," Rep. Kim was ahead of his time in painting foreign teachers as a moral problem. The rest of society would catch up in 2005 during the English Spectrum incident, when that website's photos of a sexy costume party and "Ask The Playboy" column raised the ire of netizens and led to the formation of the netizen group "Anti-English Spectrum", who soon rebranded themselves as "Citizen's Movement to Expel Illegal Foreign Language Instructors." It was only in 2006, however, that another article would appear (since Kim Han-gil's in 1997) mentioning both foreign English instructors and AIDS.

On August 14, 2006 the Donga Ilbo published an article titled "Foreign AIDS infection rate 10 times that of domestic." This article bases that statement on statistics revealing that the 2005 rate of HIV infection among Koreans was 1.4 per 100,000, while the rate among foreigners in Korea was 11.1 per 100,000. It then notes the problem that illegal immigrants aren't tested, and so could be a source of further infections. One paragraph reads:

There are six HIV counseling centers in Korea that are available for Koreans, but for foreigners there is only one place: the international HIV/AIDS clinic in Itaewon, Seoul. An official at the [Itaewon] clinic said, "Mostly white collar foreigners, such as English teachers, visit our clinic, and we have almost no illegal immigrant foreigners."

Two years earlier, in February 2004, the Joongang Daily had reported on the testing center in Itaewon:

In a nondescript building on a busy street near Itaewon, one AIDS help center for foreigners quietly set up shop a year ago. The only way to find the location is if you know where it is. They don’t advertise their presence, having a sign that displays only the group’s acronym. 

“We had so much difficulty finding a building owner who would let us sign a lease,” says Nalina Taneja, a counselor there. To get their current office space, they hid that they were an AIDS organization. The other tenants are still unaware that the office space is for AIDS counseling. 

The organization was created to fill a need in the foreign community by offering help while maintaining confidentiality. The center answers questions about HIV testing, prevention and treatment in English, Hindi, Urdu and Korean. 

Returning to the August 2006 Donga Ilbo article, the underlying idea of the article was that getting tested is beneficial to public health, and the fact that illegal immigrants were not getting tested was a problem.

Another article mentioning foreign teachers and AIDS appeared a month later, titled "AIDS is not a disease to hide any longer" and published by Breaknews on September 7. A day later, it was reposted at the website of the Korean Alliance to Defeat AIDS:

Kim Ji-yeong of the AIDS Prevention Center says without hesitation that “Korea’s men are the biggest victims of AIDS.” After seeing the attitude of a foreign English teacher after he/she found out that he/she was infected with AIDS, she says that she was very shocked by the difference in thinking that is still deeply rooted in our society.[...]

"There is too much of a clear difference in the way people view the disease and how they view those who are infected, and therefore it is a reality that people infected with AIDS within our society can only live buried under the shadows. It is now time to pull them up out into the light, and altogether be concerned and find a solution together.[...]

However, those working at the Daegu branch of the AIDS Prevention Center say that the inveterate thinking of our society that is influenced deeply by Confucian views on sex is extremely difficult to improve. Double-standards regarding sex, and excessive sexual contact purely for pleasurable pursuits that are loudly bragged about as if relating heroic stories … these are the structural ironies of our society’s thinking.

In a mostly unpublished interview for this article, the aforementioned Kim Ji-yeong of the AIDS Prevention Center explained why she was 'shocked' [thanks to Adam Walsh for sharing this]:

In 2005, a foreign English teacher came to our center for a HIV/AIDS test. The result was positive. When we informed him with the results, he was rather calm and said it wasn’t a "big deal" and told us he was going to go back to the States after a week. He further mentioned that he wasn’t too shocked with the results because he was taught since elementary school that HIV/AIDS is not fatal if taken good care of. This was quite surprising for me since the reaction was so different from Koreans. Normally when Koreans are informed of such a result, they start crying and act as if it's the end of the world.

On August 15, 2006, the day after the article "Foreign AIDS infection rate 10 times that of domestic" appeared at both donga.com and naver.com, two comments were left at the article at Naver by m2t24 - Lee Eun-ung, the leader of "Citizen's Movement to Expel Illegal Foreign Language Instructors," or Anti-English Spectrum.


While the other comments discussed illegal immigrants, his had a different focus. In the first comment, he wrote,

So, at the counseling center, they say that there are many native speaking instructors... Parents, let's raise awareness.

Seven minutes later, he wrote,

It is funny. Why would an educator be visiting an AIDS counseling center? ... Native speaker English instructors!! Parents, your children are being exposed to danger.

On September 9, almost four weeks later, Lee wrote a post on the Anti English Spectrum site titled "This is serious!!! (Concerns about AIDS after sex with foreigner teacher)". In it, he wrote:

Not long ago I read in a Donga Ilbo news article that mostly white collar white people and foreign instructors visted an AIDS counseling center in Itaewon. [...] Seeing this case, it was very serious. There are too many people trembling from the fear of AIDS after having sex with foreign English instructors - men and women... 

Now the problem of low quality native speaking instructors has reached as far as AIDS. For your information, native speaking fake instructors who come to Korea on tourist visas pose a great danger because, unlike E-2 visas, they don't submit proof of medical history.
There are counseling cases - cases of men and women! Really, what arises from the shadows?

This was followed by stories written by two Korean women, with the source not stated: 

I had sex with a foreigner instructor I met by chance when I went to a bar (a Canadian instructor at a children’s English hagwon).
We used a condom but we also had oral sex (he did not ejaculate in my mouth). I am so afraid that I cannot sleep. I am too afraid that I could not even go to get tested.
In the case of foreigner teachers, do they get health tests when they enter the country?

Normally I am never involved in promiscuous sexual relationships… It was just this one time, and I am so, so worried.

If by any chance that foreigner has AIDS, would I also be infected? I am so worried that I have even lost my appetite.
Please give me an answer.

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

I had sex with a foreigner instructor one week ago. I got to know him as an Internet friend and met up with him… we had some drinks and I went to that friend’s home… This friend lives in OO, and his character is lively and vivacious… He said that he’s been teaching English at a hagwon in Korea for one year.

I don’t know… He came to Korea and has been here up until now… and his friends also seem to be okay…

But then I had sex once with this friend and in the middle of it he started to bleed, so we stopped and we cleaned our genitals and went to sleep… Later on, he told me that it was because he had weak blood vessels… and that he had allergies… he is 22 years old… I don’t have any recent sores around my genitals, but we did not use any condoms… He said that it was his first time with a Korean.

These comments were left by members at the bottom of the page:

메머드: That is really serious… AIDS after [sexual] relations…
가온: I think it would be a good idea to get tested.
메머드: It would be essential for you to get various tests, including tests for STDs, when you get married…

As is noted in this Breaknews / Inside Story article, which was published later,

The reason why 'Inside Story' decided to report on this issue was because we received information about an AIDS Counseling Center online bulletin board where many Korean women were continuously submitting complaints about their anxieties regarding AIDS infections after having sex with a foreigner.

This 'AIDS Counseling Center online bulletin board' was the likely source of the above stories, but instead of trying to assuage their anxieties, AES used these stories to spread such anxieties as widely as they could.


The same day a look at how AIDS tests operate within the visa system was posted, with the focus on how illegal foreign teachers on tourist visas do not receive health tests.

In a post the next day about a native English teacher 'AIDS horror story', readers were told "There is an 'AIDS horror story' saying that infected foreigners are indiscriminately spreading the virus."

[A full page but less readable screen shot is here.]

Have you heard of the native speaker English teacher AIDS horror story…

The truth behind the “AIDS horror story” circulating around Itaewon.

Infected foreigners are indiscriminately spreading [AIDS].
The “AIDS horror story” of Itaewon.

Recently, there is an “AIDS horror story” - saying that “foreigners infected with AIDS have been indiscriminately spreading the AIDS virus” - that has been circulating around places where foreigners gather, such as Itaewon. The rumor says that AIDS infected people are deliberately approaching people to have sex in order to spread the AIDS virus.

Recently, an “AIDS horror story” that is being spread around Itaewon, says that some foreigners who are infected with AIDS have been deliberately approaching other foreigners or Koreans in places such as nightclubs with the goal of spreading the AIDS virus.

It is said that those infected with AIDS have various citizenships and jobs, and include foreign workers, native speaker English teachers, nightclub dancers, etc. Other than those foreigners who reside in Korea, there are also foreigners who are said to visit Korea temporarily in order to spread the AIDS virus – they stay for a little while and then leave the country.

One waiter “A” who works at an Itaewon nightclub that has many foreigner patrons, says, “Recently, there is an AIDS horror story that has been circulating around nightclubs where foreigners tend to gather. However, because nobody knows who is infected with AIDS or not, suspicions only grow larger.”

The methods that these AIDS-infected foreigners mostly use are deliberate sexual relations and deliberate blood donations.

In the case of deliberate blood donations, the possibility of the AIDS-infected person being revealed is high, and [therefore] his or her personal identity will be exposed, so this rumor is a bit unbelievable.

However, in the case of deliberate sexual relations, it is easy to approach people and difficult to expose [the identity of] the person, so it is said that the possibility of AIDS-infected foreigners choosing this method is high.

However, it is not known yet whether a foreign AIDS-infected peoples’ organization is responsible for inciting these people, or whether it is the infected foreigners within Korea just working among themselves. The only truth known from the rumor is that these people are spreading AIDS in order make their existence known. 

The waiter “A” says, “These AIDS-infected people also deliberately spread the virus in order to let their existence be known.” He goes on to explain, “I heard the rumor that some people spread AIDS because they feel it is ‘unfair to suffer alone’ and also it is very certain that there are foreigners who are infected with AIDS.”

An official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said, “There is little probability that someone will be infected by AIDS as long as that person does not have sex with a foreigner. However, if the rumors are true, then Koreans who have had sexual contact with a foreigner will almost all contract AIDs.”

To help support this Lee added a photo (since removed) and text taken from this article posted at the website of the Korean Alliance to Defeat AIDS on September 8 (originally published by Breaknews on September 7):

Kim Ji-young of the AIDS Prevention Center says without hesitation that “Korea’s men are the biggest victims of AIDS.” After seeing the attitude of a foreign English teacher after he/she found out that he/she was infected with AIDS, she says that she was very shocked by the difference in thinking that is still deeply rooted in our society.

By this point Lee had twice taken a reference to foreign English teachers and AIDS and removed it from its original neutral or, in this case, positive context and used it to give support to the idea that foreign English teachers have AIDS, and that "Koreans who have had sexual contact with a foreigner will almost all contract AIDs."

Similar versions of the 'Itaewon AIDS horror story' can be found more recently here and here. Of course, I couldn't see the term 'AIDS horror story' (에이즈 괴담) without being reminded of the 'mad cow horror stories' that helped set off last year's mad cow protests - something also noticed at this blog at chosun.com. It might also be worth noting that the story of an American missionary who injects a Korean boy with 'deadly germs' in order to kill him - in Han Sorya's 'Jackals' (1951) - is one of North Korea's most enduring novels. [See B.R. Myers' presentation here.]


The same day the 'AIDS horror story' was posted, September 10, a picture of an 'AIDS mummy' was also posted.


As should be clear, Anti-English Spectrum's method was to take whatever snippets of information they could find which might imply a connection between foreign English teachers and AIDS and spin them in the worst possible way in order to create fear, and considering how taboo a topic AIDS is in Korea, creating fear - and interest - was not difficult to do.

On September 15 Lee wrote a post titled "Things are about to take off!"

This low quality native speaker teacher story is no joke. It is a big deal on Dreamwiz and Agora also...

Soon the AIDS native speaking teacher issue will take off... Get ready to freely spread the resources and original materials. Low quality native speaking teachers and AIDS... It was the truth!!!!!111111111111111 Please wait and see.

On September 18, Lee put up this post, titled "Breaknews (AIDS foreign instructor) wide distribution!!!"


"Today it's come! Till now [the idea that English instructors are AIDS infected] hadn't risen from the internet! The report's in terminals, convenience stores, subways!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The article Lee is describing, which he contributed too, and which he is interviewed in, is the Breaknews / Inside Story article "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS," which is translated here.