Foreign Media Also Point Out 'Han Che-yak Terror'... "In Korea, It's Property Damage, Not Sexual Crime"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Foreign media are paying attention to the series of 'bodily fluid terror' incidents occurring in Korea. They introduced cases of bodily fluid terror that happened in Korea over the past three years and pointed out that there is no legal basis to punish these acts as sex crimes in Korea.

On the 12th (local time), the British daily The Guardian reported on two bodily fluid terror crimes that occurred in Korea. One involved a public official in his 40s repeatedly putting his bodily fluids into a female colleague's tumbler, and the other was a 2019 incident of bodily fluid terror involving shoes on a university campus.

Both suspects were fined 3 million won and 500,000 won respectively on charges of property damage.

The Guardian stated regarding these rulings, "There is no legal provision in Korea to apply sex crime charges to suspects of bodily fluid terror," adding, "Korea considers sex crimes only when there is direct contact and intimidation, such as in sexual harassment and sexual violence."

It also added, "Democratic Party lawmaker Baek Hyeryun proposed a bill to broadly recognize sex crimes, but it is currently pending in the National Assembly." In an interview with The Guardian, Lawmaker Baek said, "Sex crimes should be interpreted from the victim's perspective."

The American internet media Vice also analyzed that due to inadequate systems, Korean women are exposed to various sex crimes including bodily fluid terror.

Vice stated, "The Korean feminist movement faces backlash from men," and introduced recent attacks surrounding Ansan athlete’s short haircut style and Korea’s digital sex crimes.

Latin Times referred to bodily fluid terror as a "heinous attack."

Additionally, on the 17th, India’s major media The Times of India introduced bodily fluid terror incidents, calling them "a new and ugly form of sex crime prevalent in some countries."

Meanwhile, according to data from the National Police Agency, there were 44 reported bodily fluid terror cases from 2019 to July 2021. Among these, 17 cases (38.6%) were charged with property damage.

Acts of directly smearing bodily fluids on the victim’s body were prosecuted as sexual assault, but cases where bodily fluids were put on or smeared on the victim’s belongings or clothes were charged as property damage, not sex crimes.

These mainly include cases such as "repeatedly putting bodily fluids into a colleague’s tumbler at work, putting bodily fluids into a student’s shoes at school, smearing a liquid containing bodily fluid components on the upper and lower clothes of a victim met on the street, and opening a delivery box placed in front of the victim’s house and smearing bodily fluids on it."

The most frequent form of terror was "putting a condom filled with bodily fluids into the victim’s bag," which also fell under property damage charges.

In response, Lawmaker Baek, who has repeatedly advocated for strengthening sex crime punishments and introduced related legislation, explained the legislative intent to The Guardian and JoongAng Ilbo: "Currently, 'bodily fluid terror' is not a typical sex crime, but it clearly causes sexual humiliation to the victim and can be considered a sex crime act. However, there is no clear provision in the current law to address this act, creating a blind spot in victim protection."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.