(Source: danle; CC BY 2.0)
Not the outcome I expected when I first wrote about this on Sunday. From Yonhap news:
BUSAN, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) — A South Korean man, the first to be convicted of spousal rape in the country, was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide, police officials said.
The 43-year-old man, identified by his surname Lim, was found by his mother hanged at his home in southern Busan around 2:40 p.m., according to the police.
This is just breaking news, so I’ll add more tomorrow once more than just the bare details become available. In the meantime, here is a brief Korean news video with a transcript for those of you that speak Korean.
Update: Rather than simply repeating what he mentions, for more information let me direct you to Robert Koehler’s post on the subject here.
Update 2: See also #2 here.
The Grand Narrative 
Good for him~! ;)
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I’m sad for both man and woman, and their families. I hope this man’s suicide is not used by opponents of the court decision, that the verdict was onerous and thus needs reversal the next time a case comes up. I also wonder what if anything the woman will receive for her ordeal, since she is still technically married. I was wondering if she would be allowed to divorce him, since she had excellent grounds. But now, will immigration escort her to the airport in two weeks? Does she get a part of her husband’s estate, if anything? Can she stay if she wants? Those decisions might be even more important than the rape verdict.
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Szkudlar: Sigh. I knew someone would say something like that, but still, was that really necessary? And other then any suicide never really solving anything in itself, as Baltimoron rightfully points out if anything it’s probably more of a setback for women and immigrants’ rights.
Baltimoron: Couldn’t have summarized all the issues better myself! I’ll try to keep an eye on what’s said in the Korean and English-language media, although the news seems to have come out too late in the evening for today’s English dailies.
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What does the photo have to do with the story?
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She looks surprised at what happened, like I was, and she’s a Korean woman, directly affected by any developments in this landmark ruling on spousal rape. Yeah, I did consider being more conventional and using something more somber-looking instead, but while I’m not rejoicing in the husband’s death I’m not going to pretend that I personally feel sad over it either.
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Sad indeed !!!!
and its true , that rapist are not known to be Korean ..
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Some of the comments on that Robert Koehler summary of the case are positively terrifying. Why is it that some men have so much trouble understanding the concept of marital rape? Ah, I really wish the guy hadn’t taken the easy way out. He deserved jail time and, ideally, being forced to apologize to his victim, not a quick death.
Also, can someone interpret the charmingly named commenter above me’s post? I can’t make heads or tails of it.
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I can’t either. Normally I’d delete something like that without a second’s thought, but
the more comments a post has the more likely someone is to pay attention to it and/or the commentsI’m getting more and more racist and/or sexist one-liners about posts’ subjects and – to my mind – rather unfair and/or simply wrong criticisms of my blog these days, but rather than deleting the original comments and then being accused later of not allowing criticism, from now on I warn the person but still leave their comments up, so that other readers can see what they’re like and judge for themselves whether I was justified when I ban them later (here’s a recent example).Sorry, what was your comment about again? ㅋㅋㅋ Seriously though, I don’t expect to ever hear from – geez – “Rapist” again, so I’ll flag a warning this time.
As for the comments on the Marmot’s Hole, I don’t mean to sound patronizing but I wouldn’t take them too seriously: Robert Koehler’s blog is well-known for having an almost completely unmoderated comments policy, and while that doesn’t do it for me personally I can understand the appeal sometimes. True, that does attract a lot of genuine freaks, but most people would just be ranting and/or winding other commenters up for the fun of it. I myself probably sound like a very different person when I’m drinking with my male friends, although despite that I’m still a nice, non-crazy guy and so are my friends too, so none of us ever really say something we wouldn’t be prepared to say to any woman when we’re sober too (no, really). I have to admit that I used to sound much bitterer and make much more outrageous statements about women and ex-girlfriends when I was much younger, single and and sexually-frustrated back in New Zealand though, but of course that didn’t make me a rapist, and *cough* I did have good reason for many of them! Regardless though, the only difference between then and now is that now sexually-frustrated men rant on the internet instead. It’s almost an improvement in a way.
Sorry if that was overanalysis!
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“Robert Koehler’s blog is well-known for having an almost completely unmoderated comments policy,…”
You may recall that a couple of years ago, Sheriff Oranckay was deleting off-topic and flaming comments for a little while before quitting. Too little, too late. I applaud comment moderation.
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Sorry Sonagi, sometimes I honestly forget that the Marmot’s Hole actually has quite a few authors! I don’t peruse the comments sections there much these days, largely for the reasons I’ve already said, but if you moderate those to your posts(?) then I might make a point of checking those out in future.
I don’t recall Oranckay on the Hole sorry – it’s difficult to keep track sometimes – but I really can see the appeal of a light touch sometimes. There are limits though, and in particular I lost a lot of respect I had for the blog because of Pawigori (or whatever his name was) not being banned, the only purpose in not so doing seeming to be for winding up people, thereby motivating them to reply and in the process pushing up the blog’s stats and notoriety. Still, it’s Robert’s blog though, he can do what he likes, and sometimes it’s fun watching what goes in the depraved depths of the
snake pitHole…albeit preferably from a safe distance!LikeLike
I haven’t posted in awhile and don’t anticipate doing so as I am taking five graduate credits this semester in addition to a very demanding full-time teaching job. Robert has requested that contributing bloggers NOT delete comments. I have honored his request – it’s his blog – but others have not.
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