Korean Job Discussion Forums

50 Won · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

...you guessed it, Korea.

Doesn't surprise me one bit.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Do you mind posting the story and a link? It would help us know what you are talking about?

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

Asia is a pedophile's paradise.

50 Won · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

PARIS, France (AP) -- A suspected pedophile sought in a worldwide Interpol manhunt has been identified and is believed to be in Thailand, the international police organization said Monday.

The man was allegedly shown sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently ranging in age from six to early teens, in about 200 photographs posted on the Internet. The man's face was disguised in the photos as a digitalized whirl.

Using techniques that neither they nor Interpol would discuss, German police recreated an image of the man's face and released four reconstructed photos of him last week.

Interpol said more than 350 people then supplied tips to authorities worldwide, leading them to identify the man as an English teacher who worked at a school in South Korea.

Interpol said it now knows the suspect's name, nationality, date of birth and passport number, but it did not release that information in its statement. It said the man flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Bangkok, Thailand, last Thursday, with security cameras documenting his arrival at Thai immigration. Interpol again appealed for public help to track him down now.

"Thailand is at the center of an international manhunt, and authorities in the country, in co-operation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down," Interpol's secretary general, Ronald K. Noble, said in a statement.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Is there any indication that this guy taught English? I'm sure the Korean media will pick up on this and blow it out of proportion. "All foreign native speaking teachers are criminals" or something like that.

LucaAltieri · Joined: 15 Jul 2007

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Thanks, for the claification. Oh the Korean media are going to have a field day with this one.

johninmaine · Joined: 29 Jul 2007

...nice Author name, "50 Won" Smile

it didn't phase me right away, until i looked at it a second time. it's a play on "50 cent" right? i've never listened or heard this music, I'm 37, but it's still a good joke Smile

kingplaya4 · Joined: 14 May 2006

Well, it seems clear there needs to be some sort of background checks for all teachers working in Korea. And personally, I think this should be done for all current teachers, not just grandfathered in. I don't know much about how background checks work, so I hope it isn't too painful for us, but after this guy and John Karr, it's clearly necessary.

peppermint · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:10 am Post subject:

They're already standard for public school teachers but there's been a lot of trouble. Background checks from the RCMP in Canada can take up to six months due to backlogs, and we all know Koreans are neither planners nor patient.

Background checks should be standard, I'm surprised they arent anyway, but maybe they could accept them from provincial/ state police forces as well?

jeffkim1972 · Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Location: Mokpo

Being how oblivious some Koreans are, i wouldn't be surprised if this didn't even register a blip on the ESL industry in Korea.

99.99% of Korean didn't even realize Interpol was even looking for this guy.

This is an incomprehensible crime to most Koreans. Since it wasn't even perpetrated on the Koreans, they don't care.

cdninkorea · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

khyber · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Compunction Junction

Well, the BBC article says:

jeffkim1972 · Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Location: Mokpo

His picture has been out for a couple of weeks and he was in Korea just last week, so obviously no one in Korea knew of this. Even if he did it to Koreans i don't think it would change a Korean's mind, then they'll say, "as long as it wasn't my kid".

Then you have RACETRAITOR using the guy's picture as an avatar, which i thought was sort of creepy and disgusting. So you have people here that were looking up to the guy, teaching kids. Imagine knowing a teacher that kept a picture of a pedophile to represent himself. That's creepy. It's like one of your workers walking into work with the guy's face on their T-shirt.

But, this being Korea, this won't even register a blip.

I remember a thread recently where someone was complaining about a foreign teacher possibly sexually abusing kids in a suggestive way in the classroom but no one would do anything about it. They just let him go on and on.