The Hub of Sparkle!

Since November, I’ve been updating a list of links to news stories and situations where Korea’s laws and law enforcers have failed to protect the most vulnerable residents of Korea: so far, that has mostly meant women and children.  However, the scope of this collection certainly also includes groups like expats and foreign brides.  This collection is meant to gather these things in one place, in order to make them easily available to any reporter who wishes to do a more thorough investigation into the systemic failures leading to the outrageous news stories that come across from time to time.  Today I added a few recent stories to the list.  Also, if you know of a story I am missing let me know at hubofsparkle[at]gmail[dot]com.    New additions:

(April 20th, 2009) Contract-based, temp teacher arrested for molesting and raping female teens.  Upon arrest, it was discovered that he had seven counts of sexual assault and other crimes.  Korea Times.  However, if it happened a while ago, convictions disappear from one’s criminal record check, if you’re Korean. From the article:

Current law provides that criminal background checks will not refer the existence of fines after two years have elapsed, of prison sentences of no greater than three years after five years have elapsed, or prison sentences greater than three years after 10 years have passed.

(April 20th, 2009) Korea Beat translates this April 7th Yonhap News retrospective on other recent sexual assault cases by Korean teachers. (Headline: Report: Serious Loopholes in Background Checks for Korean Teachers)
(April 20th, 2009) Popular Gusts also reports a man getting a mere six month sentence, for engaging in paid sex acts with an eleven-year-old (Article in Korea: Chosun Ilbo).  That’s right: six months for an eleven-year-old.

Popular Gusts also links an article about the state of Korea’s human trafficking situation.

See the rest of the collection here.

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