Korean Job Discussion Forums

GoldMember · Joined: 24 Oct 2006

Often we hear stories about mobs/taxi drivers v's GI's and the GI's get prosecuted but sweet FA happens to the Koreans. Sometimes a teacher gets into an altercation and ends up having to pay the Korean blood money.
Does anyone out these have any actual stories, when it's the Korean who has to pay blood money to the foreigner, or the Korean gets busted for assault.
Does anyone have any stories, when the police actually gave the foreigner a decent go?
Do such cases actually exist?
Has anyone taken a Korean to court and actually won?

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

I haven't gotten into any altercations in Korea. I hope to keep it that way. However, if I ever get involved in one, I sure as hell am not going to stick around for the cops to come.

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I'm sure it's very rare. Once some of my friends stopped a gang beating, and all the Koreans ran away, leaving just my foreign friends to explain things to the police. Surprisingly, the police were quite helpful and believed everything they said.

Also, unrelated to your topic but I heard two of my friends, one American and one Korean, teamed up to beat the christ out of a troublemaking foreigner on New Year's. I don't know any details yet.

stevieg4ever · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Location: London, England

Unless the foreigner be related in someway to the consulates and embassies or in some corporate / business capacity I highly doubt it.

3d workers, teachers and GIs forget about it.

periwinkle · Joined: 08 Feb 2003

I got 400,000 won in blood money, so yes, foreigners do get paid when they are the victim. Negotiations were done with the guy's family. Police weren't involved except for the arrest.

Benicio · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 11:59 pm Post subject:

Several years ago, this young k-guy(maybe 20) was making some trouble in the bar. He smashed a glass pitcher over a foreign guy's head and was dumb enough to hang around for the cops to show up.
K-guy forked over 800,000 Won that night in order to avoid charges.
Maybe the youth of the k-guy and the graying age of the foreigner had something to do with it. Who knows?

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

SuperFly · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Location: In the doghouse

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

Not exactly the same, but a couple years ago there was an incident. I was driving in the countryside with a German friend of mine. I had just passed through a traffic light when out of the corner of my eye I saw a motorbike coming at a diagonal for me, swerving this way and that; the guy was clearly out of control. He was coming straight for my car, so in order to not nail him, I floored it. Still, he clipped the left rear bumper of my car. I saw him lose control further and fall off his bike. I pulled off the side of the road and walked back to see how he was.

He was an old guy and seemed quite dazed. I asked him how he was, but he wouldn't answer me. I asked him if he needed to go to the hospital. He still wouldn't answer me. Soon, villagers came over to see what happened. I explained to them and suggested that I should take him to the hospital, as I was concerned he might have a concussion or something. They convinced him to go with us and I took him to the hospital.

Upon arriving there, I called my wife and she came over. She went to talk with the old guy and he told her the truth about what he did and what happened. Soon after, however, his nephew shows up and tells him not to talk to anyone anymore. After the police show up, the old guy completely changed his story. He said he was walking his motorbike across the crosswalk and that I ran a red light and hit him!

I showed the policeman the mark on my car where he hit me; it proved that he was riding his motorbike and the scrape shows he hit me at an angle. The policeman took a picture, as did I.

The next day, villagers who weren't even there were suddenly "witnesses" as to what happened and supported the old guy's lie (at the same time, the police would not accept the testimony from the fellow who was with me, as he was a passenger in my car). My wife was pissed and told the villagers that if they continued in their lies, we would take them to court. They backed off a bit. The policeman who went out there with my wife said to her, "Just have your husband admit to his guilt--what's the problem? Your insurance will pay for it." My wife was even more pissed at this point. She said to him that if I had been at fault, I would have certainly admitted my guilt, but because I was not guilty, I would not accept responsibility. The cop even told my wife to shut up and would only listen to the villagers--it was too much for her and she wasn't going to let it go.

My wife went back to the police station. She demanded to use an Internet-accessible computer. She pulled up the pictures I took of my car and showed the police the old man was lying. They drove back to the accident area and the policeman with her found scrapes on the road from the bike, which further supported my story. The police had no option but to accept my version of events. Upon questioning by the police (and a threat by my wife to take him to court), the old guy finally recanted his story.

Even though I was given an official clearance, it wasn't enough. We wrote a letter to the provincial chief of police (on the police discussion board) and told him the story. We also stressed the traffic problems in that area. We received an official and public apology from him. Soon after that, they also fixed the problems we told them about.

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:09 am Post subject: Re: Physical Assault in Korea

periwinkle · Joined: 08 Feb 2003

kimchi_pizza · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject:

Good for you bluelake for escaping that mess. I hope you bought your wife some roses afterwards 'cause without her you more than likely would've been up ddong creek without a paddle. It's a good lesson to learn from. Take pictures and document everything! If I own a car, I'll store a video camera in my glovebox for that very thing. "You hit my car! Are you ok, sir? Good, now smile into my camera...." It's sad, but I'll do it.

Whatever happened to that photographer that was charged with assault by a drunken adjossi? http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=105893&highlight=wrongful+assault

Mr. Pink · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: China

For those that think GIs or those under SOFA status get nailed, that isn't always true.

A couple of my SOFA status friends were out drinking one night and this Korean guy started harassing them. This was after the incident where the tank killed the girls north of Seoul. Also, they were stationed up in that area.

Well, the guy doesn't let up, so they beat the crap out of the guy. Then when someone called the cops, they told the cops they were victims of anti-American sentiment and felt threatened by the guy. The cops let them go, no blood money, etc. involved. Considering at that time Americans were getting beat up left and right up in that area, they felt if they didn't put the guy down first, he would get others and put them down.

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005