Korean Gender Reader
(Source: Joseph Senior, via Visual News)
Just some quick links this week sorry, I’m very busy working on what feels like a dozen blog posts and offline articles at the moment!
• Recent controversial events in K-pop (My First Love Story)
• WTF Moment: Teen Top’s C.A.P and his jokes about domestic violence (Seoulbeats; see Feminoonas for updates)
• Iron Butterfly: memoir of a female Kuk Sool Won master (BBC News)
• Gay in Korea: foreign female perspective and foreign male perspective (Expatkerri)
• Sejong move splits families, hits female civil servants’ marriage prospects (Korea Joongang Daily)
• Portion of unmarried 30-something men growing, becoming social problem (Hankyoreh)
• Number of elementary school students in Seoul falls 30% in 10 years (Korea Times, via Gusts of Popular Feeling; see The Marmot’s Hole also for more on Korean demographics)
• Unemployed middle-aged men ostracized by their families (Chosunilbo)
• “In 2010, only 8.7% of working mothers in South Korea took maternity leave” (Hankyoreh)
• The importance of women for the future of Korea (Korea: Circles and Squares. And after reading that, make sure to check out this revealing photo too!)
(Links are not necessarily endorsements)
Korean Police Can Now Give Restraining Orders on the Spot
(Source)
It’s just a short article, tucked away on page 6 of the Busan edition of the November 10th Focus (below). But still, it’s always nice to hear that a new domestic violence law is actually being enforced:
Abusive husband ‘officially isolated’
First incident since implementation of special exemption law
After the implementation of a special exemption law which includes domestic abuse punishment that allows police at the scene to officially isolate the persons concerned in the event of serious domestic abuse, the first case in the Busan area has emerged.
Busan Seobu Police Station revealed on November 9th that a police officer dispatched to the scene used his authority to order isolation and a restraining order for a Mr. Kim (43), currently in the waiting period [lit. “careful consideration period”] for a divorce, who had gone to his wife, who is raising their 5-year-old son, and assaulted her; a court later decided to keep those measures in place.
Mr. Kim is under suspicion of going to the house of his wife (32), with whom he is in a divorce suit, in Busan’s Seogu on November 1st at 12:05AM, asking, “Why didn’t you answer the phone?” and committing violence that included hitting her, which he did habitually.
The couple filed for divorce in September, and a court ordered that Mr. Kim be allowed to visit his son, of whom his wife has custody, once a week on the weekend during their 3-month waiting period, but Mr. Kim went to his wife’s house on weekdays and became violent.
His wife, while being assaulted, notified the police, and the officer dispatched from the Ami Precinct Station ordered Mr. Kim to leave the house, not to come within 100 meters of his wife’s home, and not to use electronic communication like a cell phone or email to contact her. After a review, a judge decided on November 2nd to keep the measures in place.
The measures represent the first case in Busan since a special exemption law for domestic abuse punishment that gives front-line police officers the authority to take such measures came into effect on October 26th.
Front-line officers can appraise conditions like the seriousness of the violence, the use of a deadly weapon, or habitual beating, and then take official action, and if the suspect violates those orders, the officer can impose fines of up to five million won or imprison him or her for a maximum of two months (end).
(Thanks to Marilyn for the translation)
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