Korean Job Discussion Forums

[itaewonguy]

Twelve people including nightclub owners and DJs were arrested for consuming illegal drugs, police said Thursday.

The Yongsan Police Station said it arrested 12 people including two nightclub owners and booked 41 drug users. According to police, a nightclub owner, identified by his surname Kim, smuggled in marijuana and other illegal substances, and sold them to those frequently visiting his club.

They consumed the drugs in clubs located in Itaewon and Sinchon. Police are widening the investigation based on information from scores of other people, mostly children of affluent families who participated in �parties.�


anyone know which club?

[itaewonguy]

Teenage Drug Users Apprehended

A group of teenage drug traffickers and users have been apprehended, police said Friday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it arrested three teenage drug traffickers including an 18-year-old American and a 17-year-old ethnic Korean from the United States. Police also booked 15 drug users, including four students belonging to a university-affiliated language institute in Seoul.

Officers said the three traffickers smuggled in 20 grams of cocaine worth five million won in July and sold it to or shared it with Koreans who either study or had lived overseas. Police also confiscated 40 grams of cocaine worth 103 million won and 50 grams of marijuana worth five million won from the residence of one of the traffickers.

They sold the cocaine for 100,000 won a gram, police said.

Those rounded up used the drugs in Shinchon, Itaewon and Gangnam, police added. �It is not the first time that youngsters have been arrested for drug use,� an investigator said. �They seem to have had similar experiences overseas.�

Meanwhile, cases of drug use and smuggling are rising. Police apprehended a group of ethnic Koreans at Incheon International Airport in May who were attempting to bring in a large quantity of illegal drugs.

[itaewonguy]

Tycoon Scions on Probation for Drug Use

By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter

Three young men, including a grandson of a chaebol family, were found guilty of smoking marijuana, Friday.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced each to a 10-month prison term suspended for two years.

Jung, 19, is the grandson of a former honorary president of one of Korea's major companies. Choi, 20, and Park, 20, are the sons of former and present high-level executives of another big company.

Jung allegedly bought three grams of marijuana for 300,000 won near Itaewon in March and smoked it three times in an apartment in Dogok-dong and an alley in Itaewon with his two friends.

Park is also under the suspicion of smoking hashish in his friend's house in Hong Kong in July, 2007.

The court said ``They were given suspended sentences as they were first-time offenders.''

[itaewonguy]

3 English Teachers Caught for Drug Taking

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Three English teachers at an elementary school and private institutes were detected for selling or taking drugs.

Police arrested two Canadian instructors Thursday for the violation of the Drug Law, while booking a Korean English teacher who had studied abroad and 36 others including Thai migrant workers on the same charges.

The three teachers have taught children English for up to three years at elementary schools in Seoul and hagwon in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, according to police.
Police allege they taught students while under the influence of the drugs.

The accused told police that they drank alcohol spiked with ecstasy at techno bars in Gangnam, Hongdae and Itaewon on weekends between last December and February, and the drinking parties usually lasted till the next morning.

``They said they took the drug habitually as they could not avoid the temptation of the induced feeling and the illusion that the lighting of the bars looked like a laser show,'' a police officer said.
``The effect of ecstasy lasts about a day, so it is possible that they could have taught children while high after taking the drug Sunday night,'' he said.

[itaewonguy]

Nigerians in Itaewon Speak Up



By Dave Durbach

Some may be surprised to learn that Korea is home to a sizeable population of Africans, the majority (excluding South African teachers) hailing from the most populous nation on the continent, Nigeria.

Rough estimates put the number of Nigerians in Korea at several thousand, of whom about 500 or 600 live in Itaewon in Seoul.

Korea is about as far from Nigeria as anywhere can possibly be. What are these people doing here? What is Korea like for them? And is Korea a racist country? I spent a day in Itaewon to find out.

A Nigerian, who identified himself as Kingsley, has been living in Korea for over seven years, running a successful export business, dealing with Korean businessmen throughout the country, and speaking fairly fluent Korean.

He insists Koreans are intolerant of outsiders. ``Eighty percent of foreigners living in the country complain bitterly, whether they have money or not,'' he said.

He points to what was a Nigerian restaurant near to where we are talking, which has closed down. ``Look at this place," he said.

``A guy, he invested in Korea, he has all the requirements, but Koreans push him out from here. Go ask that Pakistani guy [next door], that guy is moving back [to Pakistan] next week.''

Kingsley complains bitterly about the attitude of many Koreans, as well as difficulties with immigration officials here.

He said, ``Immigration will only give you a one- or two-month visa. You always waste your time in immigration. Sometimes they hold your visa for months. I have appointments ― I'm supposed to be in China by next week, and also in Vietnam. But because of this Korean visa, I can't go out, which is very unfair. They always make things very difficult. I don't know why.''

It boils down to racism, he says. ``People told me before I came to Asia ― Korean people hate blacks. Maybe a white can be free.''

And as for having a Korean girlfriend, he won't think of it. ``Some of my friends had Korean girlfriends. They used to complain all the time. They used to call a million times ― `I need to see you, you have to stop your work, you have to do this, you have to do that.' They are very difficult. I don't think I can keep up with them!''

Maybe he was having a bad day, but Kingsley had very little good to say about Korean people, going so far as to say ``I hate them'' on several occasions.

That being so, it's hard to understand what he's still doing here. ``I'm here for business," he explains. ``We buy something, send it to our country, then we can easily make money. Without business, I don't see how somebody can stay here.''

Other Nigerians I spoke to had far kinder words. Daniel, 30, left a career in broadcasting in South Africa to come to Korea, initially working for the post office and in factories.

Now he is self-employed, living in Itaewon with his South African girlfriend. Unable to get a job at a Korean TV station or media house, he remains optimistic about his chances here, and is studying Korean to get his foot in the door. Does he enjoy living here? ``Not really,'' he admits.

Daniel sheds some light on the Nigerian experience in Korea by comparing it to South Africa, where, he says, Nigerians tend to be less organized, qualified and enterprising than those here. ``The problem with a lot of people ― foreigners, Nigerians ― most of them just want to travel. But when you get in, what are you going to do there?''

It comes down to opportunities, he believes. That's the reason why so many Nigerians around the world leave their home in the first place. In Korea, he says, there are more opportunities for Nigerians.

``In South Africa, there are no factories for foreigners to work. I know a couple of Nigerians who are working in factories [in Korea]. They're earning $1,200, $1,300. Factory work is hard, but they're doing it.''

Perhaps because he could compare Korea to South Africa, Daniel's experience of racism ― not to mention immigration bureaucracy ― here wasn't as harsh as Kingsley's.

``Let me tell you one truth about the Korean people,'' he elaborates. ``Most of them are racist. But the moment they know you can speak English, they get intimidated.''

``Racism is all over the world. It depends on the people you're meeting and the way you relate to people. Anyone can play this racist game around me ― if you do.''

He continues, ``I'll leave. It comes down to who you are ― if your status is in place, the way you present yourself and how you do your thing. Then you don't give them the opportunity of wanting to cause problems with you. So racism is not a big problem here to me.''

Another guy with a similarly easygoing yet determined approach to life, James has been in Korea for eight months, working for Samsung. ``So far, so good,'' he says. He has a Korean girlfriend, and insists not all Korean women are demanding princesses, as Kingsley suggested.

``Personally, I think good about Korean people because I have met many different kinds of Korean girls ― different thinking, different whatever. I'm living here in Korea, so I have to appreciate Korean people.''

When it comes to racism, he says, ``It depends on the individual. I think racism is not only in Korea; it's all over the world. It depends on the kind of person you meet, that's the most important thing. It's not that everybody, everywhere is racist.''

Age is a factor, too. When he met his girlfriend's parents, he says, they were friendly enough toward him. ``But, actually, sometimes you can't expect to get 100 percent from them, these grandmothers and grandfathers ― you have to prove yourself to them.

``The only thing I can say about Korean people is that they don't speak any English. They feel a little bit shy about foreigners. Most people I've met before, they want to come to you, to make friends with you, but the only thing that scares them away is the conversation. But when you speak to them in Korean, they'll be coming to you!''

There's nothing complicated about the profound difference between someone who ``hates'' Koreans because they are ``racist'' ― having been told this before they even came here ― and make it hard for him to do business, and those who dismiss racism as an occasional outcome of ignorance, compounded by the inability to speak English.

No doubt racism is here if one goes looking for it, whether one is black or white, Indian, Filipino, Japanese or even Korean. But isolated incidents of racism and xenophobia are everywhere, and needn't define a country's people or their attitude toward outsiders.

A bad attitude toward others inevitably encourages negative encounters. And when two people of different races don't see eye to eye, it's not necessarily racism. Surely, the opportunities and the good people here outweigh those few bad eggs, local or imported.

The writer is a South African freelance journalist living in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province. He can be reached at [email protected] The views expressed in the above article are those of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of The Korea Times.

[Xuanzang]

I guess they're not all scammers and suit peddlers. The obvious answer for Kingsley is what people say on here. Just go home then.

[itaewonguy]

Illegal resident faces sexual assault changes
| 기사입력 2008-07-22 10:41

광고


A Seoul police station yesterday sought an arrest warrant for a Bangladesh-born migrant worker on sexual assault charges.

Police allege that the 39-year-old man had a 15-year-old school girl drink a soft drink laced with a sleep-inducing drug at a fast-food store in Itaewon, downtown Seoul, at around midnight on July 13, and then sexually assaulted her at his house several times.

The suspect, whose name is being withheld, is also charged with having photographed and videotaped the attack, and holding her for about 30 hours after he beat her repeatedly as she tried to call the police.

The man denies the charges, and says that the drug was for her headache and that the sex was consensual.

Police found 100 sleeping pills and video clips at his house which show him having sex with 20 women. The suspect came to Korea in 2003 and is currently listed as an illegal resident here.

[mc_jc]

Itaewonguy- thanks for posting the articles.
The only thing I have to ask after reading the first two posts is; foreigners truly the bad ones?

[itaewonguy]

Female Detective Arrested 110 Criminals in One Year



Yoon Hwa-ja

By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter

Yoon Hwa-ja, a 36-year-old inspector at Seoul Metropolitan Agency, won the fourth annual Damo Award on Tuesday, marking the 61st anniversary of the birth of policewoman in the nation.

The award, established in 2004 to commemorate Damo, a legendary policewoman from Joseon Kingdom (1392-1980), is given to policewomen with highest arrest rate and who greatly contribute to the protection of society and the well-being of its citizens.

Hwa-ja spent 13 years out of her 17-year-career arresting felons including drug dealers and crime ring leaders. Her win helped propel her responsibilities from sergeant to inspector.

In 2006 alone, she arrested 110 people, including those involved in illegal gambling, illegal sex trade and rape.

``I never regretted being a policewoman. It�s a great job where you can contribute to social justice,�� she said. ``In order to be called a `detective,� not `female detective,� I would voluntarily work longer hours, concentrating on solving cases when my colleagues had left the office. I feel most proud of my job when I see my daughter being proud of her mothers� job.��

She said the most thrilling experience was when she succeeded in arresting 20 drug dealers in January 2005 in Itaewon, Seoul. Disguised as the girlfriend of a drug buyer, she had to coax a drug dealer into a corner to make the arrest. After changing the meeting place by an hour, the drug dealer called Yoon to take the car that was coming to pick her up.

She said that she hesitated for a moment because she could not see her six detective colleagues. As soon as she bravely entered the car, the criminal locked the doors as he realized that cops were around him. Yoon had to endure a few minutes fighting with the drug dealer until her colleagues came to the rescue.

Owing to Yoon�s great courage, the police were able to arrest all 20 drug dealers

[itaewonguy]

[itaewonguy]

40% of Salaried Men Drink 10 Times a Month


Four out of 10 salaried men drink alcohol about 10 times a month on average, according to a local job portal site on Wednesday.

According to a survey of 1,109 salaried men by local job portal site Career, 33.3 percent of the respondents said that they have drinking parties two to three times a week. Also, 4.5 percent said that they drink almost every day, which means that four out of 10 salaried men drink about 10 times a month on average.

While 29.4 percent said that they drink once a week, 19.3 percent said that they drink once or twice a month. Also, 13.5 percent said that they rarely drink and 45.5 percent said that they drank during working hours.

As for the reasons for having drinking parties, 40.3 percent or the largest portion of the respondents cited forging friendships with colleagues.

While 33.9 percent said that they sometimes drink excessively, 25.2 percent said that they drink as such every time. Also, 14.1 percent said that they never drink excessively.

As for drinking capacity, 34.8 percent or the largest number of the respondents said one bottle of soju, followed by two to three bottles of soju at 23.6 percent and a half bottle of soju at 20.4 percent.

[Forever]

[itaewonguy]

Sex business lives on despite crackdown
| 기사입력 2005-05-27 10:02 | 최종수정 2005-05-27 10:02

광고


Regardless of public indignation and police crackdowns, the sex business remains pervasive and ubiquitous in Korean society at various levels.

Walk down just about any street in any town - from barber shop to room salon to business club to sauna to "sports massage" parlor to neighborhood hostess bar to an out-and-out red light district; it`s difficult to find a street where sex or value-added sexual services are not offered in some form.

Even though the reality and enormity of the industry is there for everyone to see, most people remain in denial that a large number of men and women are involved in a thriving sex business.

The vast majority of people do not want to consider that it is perhaps their daughter or sister, or even their mother, aunt or grandmother who is or was involved in the sex industry.

Sex workers are more often than not ignored by society in general, outcasts - "not anyone I know," would be the answer from almost anyone.

Work in the sex industry here is varied. Ms. X, a woman who owns a bar on Itaewon`s infamous "hooker hill," described sex work in Korea as being of two main types: one to do with "entertainment," with sex as an option for the girl to make extra money (most bars or hostess positions), or as a straight sex-for-money relationship such as is found in a typical red-light district.

Ms. X had worked the American-style "entertainment" end as a "juicy girl" in a bar during most of her 20s, earning money from customers by making 50 percent on every 20,000 won drink a male customer bought her. "Juicy" bars are generally only found in places such as Itaewon which cater mostly to foreigners.

The Korean-style "entertainment" establishment that is not to Ms. X`s liking involves drinking prodigious amounts of alcohol with male customers who tend to come in large groups.

In most room salons, "mi-in clubs," and business clubs, the women don`t have a choice when it comes to taking customers, who, according to Ms. X, tend to be far more demanding and disrespectful of their hostesses. Also, Korean men tend to drink far more than Westerners when socializing, and they usually come in groups rather than singly or in pairs as is mostly the case with foreigners.

In the Korean-style case, drinking/hostess establishments give the workers a flat fee for a group of customers, usually in the range of 30,000 to 50,000 won. In places catering to foreigners, the money is a 50/50 split for every drink purchased, with no upper limit.

Women working for Korean places have to drink large amounts of alcohol to earn comparably less money than "juicy girls" and may have to resort to a "second stop" - going somewhere for sex with a customer - to get another few hundred thousand won.

A "room salon girl," in order to make any decent money, has to try to stay fairly sober as a rule to convince a customer to go out for sex after drinks, whereas the foreigner-oriented "juicy girl" makes the most money drinking "special" - read "non-alcoholic" - cocktails while encouraging their clients to buy as many drinks as possible. Sex for money, if the "juicy girl" actually wants to offer any, is occasional and usually involves a returning customer or one who has spent a lot of money on drinks.

There are places that offer straight sex, using a bar as a front, although in Itaewon, much of the money is made on drinks, drinks, and more drinks, with sex as an option if the girl is willing and the price is worth it.

In the Korean entertainment genre, the game is to imbibe as little alcohol as possible while encouraging a customer to drink more. But there is no direct financial incentive to get anyone to drink more, since the girl receives a flat fee for the group and going off with a customer is where a hostess makes more money.

Ms. X is a "juicy girl" who saved her money and bought out the owner of the bar, and now she keeps all of her drink tab.

What of straight sex-for-money in typical red-light districts exclusively for Korean men? Ms. Y, who is in her early 20s and comes from a mall town in the southern part of the peninsula, was frank about her reasons for working in a red-light district, one of the many found in almost any medium-sized Korean city as well as all over Seoul - Cheongnyangni, Miari, Yongsan, Yeongdeungpo.

Her room, which she said is typical of many and any others these days, was surprisingly spacious and clean, albeit suggestively decorated in red. She agreed to talk for about 15 minutes, since that`s about all the time she gives a customer.

Getting right to the point, I asked how people generally got into her kind of work - was she in debt, were there cases she knew of women trapped in debt bondage, or perhaps even women kidnapped from the countryside and forced into the sex trade here? She laughed dismissively, saying that was a ridiculous a notion nowadays, although perhaps such cases occurred in the 1970s or 1980s and were still sometimes reported in the media. She said there so many women wanting to and looking for work in red-light districts now that there was no need for any ruthless recruiting.

She said her room and all the furniture in it was completely free and part of a package deal readily available in most red-light districts. A woman could walk in off the street, not pay a dime for a room, and start earning money for herself and the house virtually immediately.

Ms. Y laughed off the anti-sex-trade law as a show for the media and the public, after which it was back to business as usual.

Brief talks with a few other women confirmed the crackdown had scared a few girls away and briefly kept recruitment down, but it`s apparent to any observer that major red-light districts around Seoul are generally operating as before.

Ms. Y explained that most working girls lived and worked in their rooms, with a day off once a week. They came into the trade for all kinds of reasons - from supporting family members back home, paying off personal debts, accumulating capital to start their own businesses, or just to make a lot more money than they could otherwise elsewhere.

In her case, her mother was in hospital and she decided to come to Seoul to earn the money to cover the bills. She was allowed by the house to adjust her schedule to work three weeks without a break and take one week off to travel back home. She lamented that she therefore had no rest days for three weeks at a time.

The government`s 2002 estimates say there are about 1 million women engaged in sex work at any one time, mind-boggling until one remembers it would take a high number to support an industry that comprised 4.4 percent of the GDP - more than forestry, fishing and agriculture combined (4.1 percent). The estimate was conservative since it dealt with semi-formal places of prostitution where numbers of workers and estimated income can be tracked.

Considering that there are other forms of prostitution which are nearly impossible to track, it indicates between one-sixth to one-tenth of women in the country at some time have worked in some capacity or the other in the sex trade or on the periphery. And some of them use the money they own as capital to start "legitimate" or other businesses.

[pkang0202]

[itaewonguy]

Congolese Arrested for Robbing Belgian Envoy
| 기사입력 2004-07-18 17:32 | 최종수정 2004-07-18 17:32

광고


By Lee Jin-wooPolice arrested a Congolese man on Saturday on suspicion of breakinginto the Seoul residence of Belgian ambassador to Korea, Koenraad Rouvroy, early Friday morning.

The suspect, Konga Bakandjo, 24, who used to work at the residence and was fired in February for throwing a party without his employer�s permission, was caught by police officers on the street of Itaewonat 8:40 p.m., the Yongsan Police Department said.

Investigators presume Bakandjo, who has been unemployed since losinghis job, committed the crime out of a grudge held against the ambassador.

After learning the burglary suspect frequently visited Internet cafes in Itaewon, police searched African and Afro-American residentialdistricts in the area.Although Bakandjo denied the criminal charges, police requested an arrest warrant for him after securing closed-circuit television videotapes in which the suspect was recorded withdrawing 500,000 won (around $430) from an automatic teller machine (ATM) by using the stolencredit card as well as clothes he wore while committing the crime.According to police, Bakandjo also attempted to purchase some electronic goods with the stolen cards, but failed since the three cards he stole had already been reported for the theft.

The suspect is charged with breaking and entering the Belgian ambassador�s Itaewon residence through an opened window on the first floor at 0:45 a.m., Friday. He made off with credit cards and other valuable items after binding the ambassador and his wife with electric cords and gagging them with tape