In short
Rotten Mango Podcast Episode #257 Summary
Episode Title
The Most EVIL Middle-Schoolers In South Korea That Got Away With Murder
Episode Description
This episode delves into a shocking true crime case involving eight teenagers in South Korea who committed murder but, due to their age, escaped severe punishment. The narrative explores the events leading up to the crime, the aftermath, and the societal implications tied to juvenile justice.
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Key Events and Characters
Timeline of Events:
- March 29, 2020: Eight 13-year-olds steal a car and later cause a fatal accident that kills a delivery driver, Lee Kun, who was just 18 years old.
- The teenagers panic after hitting Kun, abandon the vehicle, and the police arrest them shortly after.
Lee Kun:
- An 18-year-old delivery driver known for his hard work and dedication to his family.
- His tragic death marks a pivotal moment in the story, revealing the impact of the crime on his family and community.
The Teenagers:
- A group of eight 13-year-olds involved in a spree of criminal activities, including car theft and robbery.
- Their lack of remorse and casual attitudes towards serious crimes highlight troubling aspects of youth culture and legal protections in South Korea.
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Legal and Societal Issues
Juvenile Justice System:
- Criminal Age of Responsibility: In South Korea, minors under 14 cannot be punished for crimes. This law allows the perpetrators to escape serious consequences despite their actions resulting in a death.
- The podcast discusses public outrage regarding this law, with calls for reform as citizens express concerns for safety and accountability.
Public Reaction:
- Following the release of the teenagers, citizens launched petitions demanding stricter laws and accountability for juvenile offenders, gathering over a million signatures.
- The public discussion reveals a divide between understanding the need for rehabilitation and the demand for justice for victims.
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Psychological Insights
- The episode critiques the social environment and psychological development of these teenagers, suggesting a lack of empathy and moral understanding.
- Text messages exchanged among the killers post-crime indicate a disturbing trivialization of their actions and a complete absence of guilt.
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Community Impact
- Lee Kun's mother’s grief and her fight for justice are central to the narrative, symbolizing the broader societal implications of the crime.
- The podcast raises questions about parental responsibility and societal influences on youth behavior.
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Conclusion The episode concludes with a reflection on the ongoing issues in South Korea regarding juvenile crime, the adequacy of current laws, and the potential for these young offenders to re-offend. The urgency for legal reform and societal change is emphasized, leaving listeners with a sense of unease about the state of youth accountability.
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Key Takeaways
- The case reflects serious flaws in the juvenile justice system that prioritize the rights of young offenders over the victims.
- It highlights the societal need for discussion around crime, accountability, and the responsibilities of parents and the community in preventing such tragedies.
- The psychological analysis of the perpetrators offers insight into how societal norms might influence youth behavior and perceptions of crime.
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This episode of Rotten Mango serves as a stark reminder of the complexities surrounding juvenile crime and the pressing need for a reassessment of legal frameworks to protect the most vulnerable in society.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:02Let's talk about the events of March 29th, 2020. This takes place in South Korea almost exactly like three years ago at this point. It's a little bit past midnight and there are eight teenagers just, okay, they're barely teenagers. They're 13 years old. Most of them are. So imagine eight 13-year-olds just booking it, running for their lives in South Korea. Like, you know, when you run so fast, your heart starts to pump out of your chest. You feel like you can hear your heartbeat in your ears. That's how fast these kids were running. They're literally running for their life. That's how desperate they are.
0:36Whenever they think, okay, surely we're safe now. They would turn around and they would see another one of their friends had been thrown onto the ground, taken down. It started with eight. Then there were seven. Then there were six, five, four, three. It seemed like the city of Daejeon, which is where they were in, it's the fifth largest city in South Korea. It's so big. It's so populated. But not a single person wanted to help them while they're desperately running for their lives. Where are they running? On the street? Yeah. they run like their lives depend on it because maybe it does one of the girls pura 13 years old she could feel her legs starting to give out there was like shooting pains going up each of them every step she took it felt like someone was shooting her up the palm of her foot she thought you know what fine fine i can't do this anymore i'm just gonna let him catch me i'm gonna let this guy who's chasing me down catch me because whatever he's got in store for me has got to be less painful than what I'm experiencing right now.
1:35So she slows down. She puts her hands on her knees and she's panting. She's trying to catch her breath, okay? And he comes up behind her. She looks up and says, oh God, that was really, really tough. She let out a little smirk. She was thrown onto the ground, handcuffed, and placed under arrest. In today's case, these eight 13-year-olds, these eight teenagers, they are not the prey being chased down by a big bad predator. They are the predators. These eight kids had just murdered a delivery driver in cold blood. The infuriating part is they're going to get away with it. As always, full show notes are available at RottenMinglePodcast.com.
2:20With that being said, this was a viral case in South Korea. There is a lot of online discourse about this on whether or not the laws are protecting people or knowingly putting citizens in even more danger. There were petitions made aimed towards the Blue House, aka the White House of South Korea, begging politicians to do something. There's incredibly damaging text messages between teenagers. The killers were texting each other after they killed someone. What they're saying, you're going to lose your mind. now there are a lot of people involved and about eight main killers if you will technically you can find some of their names online because normally south korea is really crazy about releasing even adult criminals names adult people's names but with children it's absolutely out of this world but this case is so bad people were doxing these killers left right and center i'm not going to give you guys their names because i don't really think it matters to this case but they're easily findable online.
3:18So with that being said, let's get into it. E-Khan worked as a delivery driver in Korea, which sounds like the type of industry where you never really get to know each other. Like I think if you think of a DoorDash driver in the US, you kind of work for yourself. You don't really get to know other drivers. In Korea, it's a little bit different. There are a couple of handful of popular restaurants in the area. There's a couple of handful of full-time drivers. They all know each other. A lot of them can recognize all of them, like the restaurant owners. They can recognize their favorite delivery drivers even through their big motorcycle helmets.
3:51And Lee Kun, he was one of them. He was just always very polite, hardworking, like very detail-oriented. And a lot of these restaurant owners are thinking, it's really hard to find these traits in an 18-year-old boy these days. He's 18. On particularly busy days, you can see Kun walking in the restaurant, grabbing a food order, while with the other hand, he's quickly scarfing down a snack from the convenience store. So he doesn't even stop to eat meals. He doesn't have a lunch break. He just eats whenever he can in between deliveries, just on the go. If the restaurant owners ever, if they ever thought about telling a kid, a young man, hey, maybe you should take it easy and go have fun.
4:31It was good. Like that's who they wanted to tell. But they all knew that he was supporting his mom. So he would go off on another delivery again. Now, March 29th, it's midnight. Khun is picking up a pizza order. He's got a snack in one hand. There's CCTV footage of him inside of this pizza shop eating a snack as he's going to the back to pick up the order. They ask, almost done for the day? Any plans? Yeah, it's my last delivery. No special plans. I think I'm going to ask my friend if she wants to go eat something yummy with me afterwards. He smiles. He grabs the pizza, and he leaves for his last delivery for the night.
5:08this is just past midnight at a relatively lively intersection in korea so it's a four-way intersection it's actually the daejeon intersection and daejeon is the fifth biggest city in korea so regardless of time there's still going to be a good amount of people on the road now for everyone waiting at this intersection for their light to turn green they're just going about their lives i imagine in this moment it would feel like time would stop or at least for a brief second even Some saw bits and parts of what happened while they're waiting in their car. Some saw the black car run the red light and book it as fast as they can across the intersection.
5:45Some saw the black pieces of plastic and metal just flying through the air to the other side of the street. And some people just saw a limp body laying on the ground. There was like a pool of blood all over the intersection. And every single person parked there, it didn't even matter if they had music on, they had all heard it. even if they hadn't seen it, they heard it. It was such an ear piercing thud. Everyone had this pit in their stomach because when you hear something like that, it is too loud to be a fender bender. It is too loud to be like a small accident. Someone needs help ASAP. There is a four-way intersection and let's say the motorcycle is heading north.
6:24I don't know if this is the actual like compass direction, but just to give you an idea, motorcycle is trying to head north. There is a black car to the motorcycle's left that's trying to go right. So they're going to be perpendicular. Now the motorcycle has the right of way. So they start inching towards the middle of the intersection. And the black car on the left, they have a red light. But they just decide to book it. Like 0 to 60, book it. Run the red light. And at the cross section, they slam into each other. and you just see motorcycle parts, tires flying in the air. A lot of people see a limp body just on the side of the road.
7:07And just to give you an idea of how bad it is, emergency services, let me explain it the way that they did because they know what these motorcycle looks like. They know what these accidents look like. They say you take one look at this motorcycle and they thought to themselves, it would be a miracle if the driver survived. There are tires apart all over the street. There are black plastic chunks. I mean, to give you an idea, you all know what a motorcycle looks like. There's like the thick, bulky, plasticky parts that make up the front, the seats. Even under the seats, there's like little layers of plastic.
7:37But underneath, it's almost like a rudimentary bike. The motorcycle they found on the street that day, it had been basically obliterated upon impact. All the plastic had basically blown off and the bike was bare. It looked more like a bicycle than a motorcycle. And there was just so much blood everywhere. Paramedics, they rushed to the only body at the scene. By the way, the black car just... Just kept going. Just didn't even stop for a second, right? No. So the paramedics rushed to the only body at the scene, the only vehicle at the scene, and they start performing CPR. It looked like a young male.
8:12There was no sign of a pulse. They couldn't hear any breathing. They rushed him to the hospital, but as they were lifting him onto the stretcher, one of the emergency responders said, I think we all knew, because his body felt broken inside and out. Like every part of him felt crushed and broken. They rush him to the nearest hospital where the doctors looked at the clock and they called the time of death. This man's name was Lee Kun. He had lived exactly 18 years and 97 days before he had been killed. To even, I mean, I don't want to say to even call him a man because that sounds like he's not man enough and that's not what I'm insinuating, but this is basically a child still.
8:54They had just turned 18. Kun's family members, they were alerted. And his mom rushes to the hospital. She said that she just remembers thinking, please don't let it be my son. Please don't let it be my son. Please let it be my mistake. And she sees this boy laying there. And his lips are so pale. His body is so cold. And there was no denying it anymore. This was definitely her son. There was nothing she could do in this moment. She said, what am I supposed to do? She tried to be a mom. So she sat down. she held his hand she tried to close his eyes so his eyes wouldn't close it said that kun had died so suddenly that there was no time for him to close his eyes and since they hadn't been closed by the paramedics or any of the bystanders there rigor mortis had set in and his eyelids were now too stiff to stay closed so every time she tried to close his eyelids they would pop back open and then she just kept trying she said that she wasn't gonna leave until he closed his eyes until she put her baby to rest one last time she talked to him and she said it's okay it's okay oma is here now it's okay it's okay to close your eyes and i'm not sure if this is customary in other cultures but for koreans um growing up whenever you hurt yourself or get a little bit of like a boo-boo like you fall down at the park and you get a scrape on your knee i just remember my mom would blow on the wounds.
10:17Do you guys do that in China? Yeah. I'm sure medically it does nothing to help the healing, but they just go, like, 괜찮아, 엄마. Like, 엄마 손의 약 손, which means mommy's hands are medicine hands. And they blow on your wounds. And I remember it helped me feel so much better when I was a kid, so maybe it does work mentally. Kun's mom spent an hour just blowing on his wounds and scars. and I think it was slowly dawning on her that she was never gonna have another photo to put into his photo albums she was never gonna have another moment with her son ever again this was it and she remembered just three months ago it was the most exciting time in Kun's life January of 2020 Kun had run home he was so excited he's practically bubbling and he's like mom I got an ID.
11:08I got an ID. So in South Korea, you get an ID once you turn 20 in Korean age, but in the US age, it's 18. So Kun is 18. He gets an ID and it allows you to drink, drive, vote. And it's very symbolic of becoming an adult. He's like, I can vote now. I'm an officially an adult mom. And since I'm an adult mom, I promise I'm going to be your guardian now. I'm going to take care of you. He promised he was going to graduate university and make sure that his mom never worked another day in her life. He promised to take her on vacations. And one day he was like, I'm going to buy you whatever you want. I'm going to buy you all the most delicious meats.
11:48Like you're never going to have to stress about anything ever again because you got me. So I'm going to take care of you. And these were not just empty words, fleeting words of a teenager. Couldn't got a job as a delivery driver to help his family pay for his college tuition and to help with the bills. And his mom would just think to herself, how did I get so lucky? She said she named him Kun because in Hanjia, traditional Chinese, his name means strong. So anytime he was working, all the fellow delivery drivers and the restaurant owners, they would think, there he goes again. Like he was one of the hardest delivery workers.
12:27He did about 60 deliveries in a day. And technically the city is small, so it's easier to get from one place to another. But this guy never took a break for himself. He just kept thinking about his family and he just kept going. And it just broke her heart knowing that now she is holding his cold body in her arms one last time. After like an hour, Finally, his eyes closed and she promises her son, I'm going to take care of it. I'm not going to make you feel injustice when you're in heaven. She was determined to catch whoever did this to her son. And the problem was catching them is the easy part.
13:06Punishing them would prove to be nearly impossible. So first, let's talk about the accident. This, like I said, is a four-way intersection and Kun was headed straight. He had the right of way when a car on his left comes in crashing into him from the side. This is clearly an accident caused by the car on the left that ran the red light. And then they just left him there bleeding out on the side of the road. They didn't even stop. The crash was so bad. All of the airbags deployed, but they still kept driving. They kept on driving. They did not stop. The police very quickly tracked down the people in the car because eventually the car would not go.
13:44The car slowed to a stop and it refused to keep driving because it was completely totaled. The airbags had deployed. It was really bad. The people in the car, there were eight people in this sedan. Eight 13-year-olds. How is that possible? So there's six people squeezing in the back? They abandoned the car on the street because the car clearly looked like it had been a part of the deadly accident. It clearly wouldn't drive anymore. All of the airbags were out. and they get out on foot and start booking it. They run for their lives. But ultimately, they were arrested. The police also tracked down the registered car owner, so the owner of the car.
14:22And he was a resident of Seoul and he was in Seoul at the time of the crash, which is confusing because Seoul is about 65 miles away from Daejeon. So why is your car in Daejeon? Like, do you know any of the people that were in the car? Are they related to you? And he's like, my car was stolen two nights ago. Wait, what? So the owner of the car gave a pretty detailed interview about the series of events. He said, I usually finish work around 9 p.m. I come home, park my car in the usual spot in the parking lot. It's my favorite spot. Then I walk into my apartment building. Now, for some reason, in the middle of the night, I woke up at around 3 a.m.
14:59I think I was a little bit hungry. So I'm like, huh, maybe I should go to the 편의점, the convenience store. Grab a bite to eat. Then I get a little food coma. I'm going to go back to sleep. I was going to walk, but I have to go through the parking lot to get to the Panty Jum, and I just quickly glance at my little parking spot, and it's empty. My car is gone. I immediately call the police that night, and I'm like, my car is stolen. What do I do? They're like, we'll let you know when we find your car. A full day passes the next day. No call. No updates on the stolen car. I go to sleep that night.
15:30I wake up, and I hope, okay, maybe today the police are going to find my car. And they did. Around 3 p.m. that afternoon, they called to tell me that in the middle of the night last night, my car was used to kill someone He continues They said that some kids stole my car and got into an accident There was a victim who died from the accident when I heard that my car was used as a device for killing someone My heart was beating so fast My hands and my body were shaking. I just I was speechless and I was speechless to learn that they said it was eight kids around the age of 13 years old. Were they like seventh graders?
16:10I just couldn't believe that middle schoolers would steal my car and kill another person. He said, I was surprised on how middle school students were able to even drive my car. I mean, what kind of kid that age even dares to commit these types of crimes? It's kind of insane. It's ballsy. I can't even imagine doing something like that in high school, let alone middle school. the police end up catching six of the eight killers the same night of the accident. They were arrested right away, which is exciting, right? But they were very quickly released because of something called the criminal age of responsibility in South Korea.
16:43Korea's criminal law, Article 9, states the acts of minors under the age of 14 years old are not punishable by law. Anything? Anything. I mean, this is probably the worst. This is murder. I don't know how it gets worse than murder. maybe torture and murder, but in extreme cases, you can get two years in a youth detention center, but that's very rare, almost unheard of. So basically anything. These killers were released before the car owner even knew what happened to his car. That's how insane this is. They were released even though the police see them. They know that they have a history of committing crime after crime.
17:21These 13-year-olds, they know the law. They know that they will not be responsible since they're not 14 yet and they use it to their advantage. So let's get into who these people are.
17:34March 28th, around 1.30 a.m., just about 24 hours before the murder, eight kids steal a car in Seoul. This is the first car they steal because they're going to steal another car immediately after the murder. So they steal car number one. This is the car that's going to be used in the accident, the deadly accident. They drive around the city for 24 hours. they're like hanging out going to bars like doing all of these illegal festivities and 24 hours later march 29th 2020 at around 12 a.m they end up in taejun and they kill kun now from there they all start running six of the teenagers were caught that night on foot two were not two kids two of the guys they were not caught they ran to a nearby town and stole another car at four in the morning there is this is going to infuriate you there is cctv of them like footage of them stealing the second car and how do they steal cars i don't get it okay so i don't want anyone to victim blame because it's just different cultures different vibes this is giving small town america nobody locks their doors so a lot of people in korea don't really lock their car doors either and key yeah some people leave their keys and i heard i don't know if this is true in this particular situation or true in general but a lot of parking lots are double parked so you got cars parked behind each other and you're trapped so sometimes people have an attendant and you leave your key in the car and sometimes the attendant is gone sometimes there is no attendant did you know in korea sometimes cars are put on neutral and so if you're okay you can move it so you push the car out of your way so you can leave wow that's so interesting so the parking culture is there and typically with theft especially car theft it's not that common korea is filled with cctv it's really hard to get away with stealing let alone a purse but a full vehicle yeah like it's yeah it's pretty intense so they really just probably these kids probably just really don't care yeah like no adult would commit this crime because they would go to prison and it would be so easy to catch them but these kids literally know that they will not be punished so they don't care about getting caught.
19:43So after they use a stolen car to murder an innocent person, they steal another one. And in the CCTV footage, you can see them walking with their hands in their pockets, leisurely as if they own this world, as if they own this parking lot. They find an unlocked car. The owner would later say that his car key ran out of battery so he was unable to lock it before he went into the house. I'm not really sure what the reasoning was, but it doesn't really matter. It's still theft. Just because it's unlocked doesn't mean anything. The teenagers find it. They open the doors, start rummaging through the car.
20:15They're throwing out all of the owner's documents, insurance papers, just throwing them around the parking lot. They take the car and they leave. The teenagers find the unlocked car. They open the doors, start rummaging through the car, and they just throw out every single document in there, just insurance papers, anything belonging to the rightful owner of the car. They're throwing it out straight into the parking lot. They take the car and they leave. Now, the owner realizes the very next morning that his car was stolen and he alerts the police. By then, the two teens that had stolen the car drove it all the way back to Seoul and the car was eventually found.
20:51Now, the black box that every car in South Korea is legally required to have, which is basically an external camera or audio recorder, it was ripped out. The last two perpetrators were found, arrested and very quickly released. So all eight of them have been found, arrested, identified, and released. I cannot imagine how infuriating this is for Kun's mom and all of his loved ones, knowing that the police know who the killers are, know where they live, know what they look like, know what school they go to, and they're just like, okay, well, there's nothing we can do about it. Just to show you how angering this law is, these kids had gotten into trouble with the law multiple times prior to the murder, if not days before the murder.
21:36So just a few weeks before the murder, a few members of the group robbed a Korean barbecue restaurant. They were found rummaging through the cash register, taking anything of value after restaurant hours. They previously stole multiple other vehicles. Then they would take those stolen vehicles to gas stations around town and rob the gas stations. There's at least three gas stations that we know of that they were caught robbing. In the U.S., each gas station pump, you can only take credit or debit card. If you want to pay in cash, you have to go inside, pay the attendant the cash. In Korea, I believe you can do it at each specific pump, meaning that there is like a little cash box inside.
22:12It's locked, but I guess it's easily breakable because that's what these kids are after. We know of three, there could easily be more. But these kids, they would steal cash, alcohol, whatever they wanted. They would steal alcohol from restaurants. They would wreck restaurants, tear them apart, trash them, throw out their safes. safes. Again, this is all happening a month prior to Khan's murder. And these idiots are not criminal masterminds. They were basically caught each and every single time. There's literal CCTV of them stealing the cash box inside of the gas station stall. They even have pictures of them posing on stolen cars.
22:50So they would steal a car and post a picture on social media of them and this stolen car. But they would keep the license plate number. Like that's how ballsy they are. They're smoking cigarettes sitting on the hood of this car pretending like they're in some sort of music video and it's just bizarre. They truly do not care about getting caught. Can you imagine someone stealing a car and then posing on it showing the full license plate number and posting it on Facebook? Like that is not normal. So yeah they were caught for all of their crimes but the police would catch and release them like they're on a fishing trip.
23:23There's even a selfie that a couple of them took at a police station. One of them is smoking a cigarette. The other ones are holding up a peace sign. They're posing and it's captioned Kumi police station escape plan in progress. I mean, at this point, they are being protected by the law rather than being punished for their crimes. This is the most mind boggling thing in so long. I mean, they know it. They're proud of it. They know that they're not going to get in trouble. Even just four days before the death of Kun, one of the perpetrators stole a car, got into a car accident. Thankfully, nobody was injured or fatally wounded.
23:59But there were articles and headlines talking about this accident, talking about how a minor had stolen a car and crashed it. The criminal, the minor, decides to repost the article on social media and laugh about how he broke the law. It was making headlines. And guess what? Nothing happened to him. He captioned the repost, And it kind of translates to, be right back almost poking at the fun that if he commits a crime he goes to the police station and is immediately released like I'll be right back that's what you say when you are going to the supermarket to pick up eggs like even his comments are out of this world it's a bunch of middle school kids giggling others are commenting fine you caught me it was me some are laughing like oh my god this is fucking crazy lolol you're a star a star lol you're so popular fuck this is so funny you're just out here filming your own fast and the furious he even responded to that comment saying fast and furious yeah i hit like 125 miles per hour and again if you've been to seoul it's like la it's like new york have you ever really thought about hitting 125 not even on a freeway i mean even on a freeway most times that's illegal but in a city?
25:16Four days later, Kun would be murdered and even after a man is now dead, a son is now gone. The police let these kids go. Do these killers show remorse? Do they change? Because that's what the law is supposed to be for, right? The kids under 14 have no ability to critically think so they need guidance to know what's right and what's wrong and they're getting this guidance and learning from literally murdering someone. So one of the perpetrators posts on social media, after today's accident where someone died, I will never drive another car again. I don't even know how to feel about that. You know when you get food poisoning from eating oysters and you're like, oh, I'm never gonna eat another oyster ever again.
25:58Like that's the energy of this post. His friends commented, oh, we fucked up. I guess he starts getting some comments of classmates being pissed off at what he did or saying this post isn't funny because he gets very pissed off and he starts responding to these people. First of all, I wasn't the one driving. Second of all, we didn't purposely kill the guy. People need to know something before they open their mouths. It gets worse. Even though the police are clearly not doing anything about it, the public starts hearing about this case. And slowly, the identities of these perpetrators are basically getting out.
26:28So their social media accounts are getting out. Most of it was due to their fellow classmates being so disgusted by their actions that they would post about them to out them. Which, like, good for them. after the murder some of the teens were actively posting on social media showing zero remorse one posted a selfie and said please wait for me if i go to jail another one said one selfie before i go to jail another wrote i'm gonna go to prison so write me a lot of letters no really i'm gonna go to jail so you better write me and don't say you guys don't have enough time to write me letters just write me a letter and send it to me well they really think it's a joke huh yeah another one wrote, please write me letters.
27:08Let's all be healthy and see you guys after a month. Love you all, my friends. Heart emoji. A few of the other perpetrators were outed because they had incredibly despicable conversations with fellow students. One perpetrator texted her friend, I killed someone. I'm fucked. In Daejeon, I got into an accident and a man died. The friend responded, question mark, question mark? What are you rambling about? Are you being serious right now? Yep. They said, yep. Where are you? Right now? Home. At the Daejeon intersection, I got into a car accident. We were all taken into the police station, minus the girls.
27:46The friend that the perpetrator was texting ended up screenshotting these texts and posting it on social media because they said they were disgusted at the perpetrator's lack of remorse. I mean, even the yep, like just all of it. It was so gross. The way they even conversed about what happened was so disrespectful. I'm so fucked. Like it's, it's not about you. When the perpetrator found out, they texted this friend back saying, Hey, you fucking R word. Your friend is on the news and you're sharing our text saying it's fucking crazy. Huh? This is really not normal. It is crazy. Like you are crazy.
Read the full transcript
28:27Sorry, fuck. What? You think I killed that guy because I really wanted to? Huh? But you better not tell your other friends that I'm part of this. Don't even freaking dare. I think everybody already knows it's you. No, they don't. They don't know it's me and redacted. Another killer and his classmate's text messages were also revealed. The classmate texted one of the killers. Why don't you guys say sorry after murdering someone? the perpetrator said what you want me to apologize to you how about to the victim we're taking care of it on our own so mind your own business but you you call yourself my friend but you abandoned me in my time of need the classmate responds who wants to be friends with a murderer and he responds 내가 죽였냐 and i wish i wish you spoke korean right now honey because okay for those of you who speak Korean you're going to understand just that phrase itself but for those that don't speak Korean I'm going to try to break it down as best as possible.
29:25Now it does loosely translates to did I kill him but it's not that simple. So there's at least three ways of saying did I kill him in Korean. The most proper way is 내가 죽였다구요 which is honorifics. Maybe the proper way if a police officer was like oh you killed him then I'd be like, oh, sir, like, are you implying, are you asking if I killed them? That's kind of how you're doing it. Then you have the non-honorific way of saying it, which is 내가 죽였어? Which is comparable to did I kill him? So when you read that in Korean through text message, you could read it as did I kill him? Did I kill him? Wait, did I kill him?
30:07Did I kill him? So there's very, a variety of ways to interpret it. but when you write it with nha at the end, 내가 죽였냐? There is no other tone than, what, did I kill him? That is the only way it's read in Korean. Like no one can say that as like, 내가 죽였냐? Like it doesn't work. It's 내가 죽였냐? That's the only way. So the fact that he's typing it like this, even after murdering someone, like someone is dead, it is so telling. His classmate responds, Even if you weren't able to fully mature in your head, shouldn't you be able to think with your so-called brain? But I almost died too. You really crossed the line.
30:49Forget friendship. Friendship aside, you crossed the line. Yes, that is why I'm taking time to reflect. I hope you regret what you did. I am fucking regretting and reflecting, but I'm just pissed off that everyone is blaming and cursing us on Facebook. Did you eat something bad? I don't see a single hint of reflection from you. if I were you I would just be quiet after all of this is said and done but instead you guys are going on Instagram live laughing having fun like nothing's ever happened I don't know if you guys will go to jail or not but I hope that you guys will never make the same mistakes after this even you should know not to cross this line I'm really ashamed that I ever called you my friend don't contact me again and you know what yeah you deserve to be criticized online a hit and run driving without a driver's license the perpetrator responds I mean yeah fine you can curse about it if you want to.
31:40I mean, even if you think about it objectively, you don't think it's too much? But that still doesn't make me a murderer. If you're not a murderer, isn't just being a bystander to this at fault too? Bystanding is also at fault, but why did you call me a murderer then if I'm not? Who said you're a murderer? You did! Well, I guess you're similar to a murderer. You were in the same car. No, well, murder means a man who killed a man. These text messages were also released to the public but there's more one of the girls that was in the group that was at the scene she texted a classmate that kept confronting her about what she did and she texted that classmate don't fuck with me the classmate responded sure sure fucking murder and she responds you better stop fucking around before i run your mom over too or do you not even have a mom so i don't know if there were allegations that her mom had left or if she's being raised by a single dad but it seems like extra personal.
32:39Side note, when these text messages were released, most of the perpetrators' names were blurred, but other classmates and students started outing them. A lot of their social media has been made public and since then been deleted. But regardless, these text messages being released showed everyone, the public, it proved that these perpetrators, these so-called kids that we need to protect, they don't have remorse. They never even privately apologized to the victim's mother. And I'm not saying that they should go and put on a full freaking show. I would never even think that they would do that. But I would imagine that their parents would drag them there and force them to apologize.
33:17Kun's mom was interviewed and she said, I can't even see my child anymore. Yesterday I cried all night long. Today I'll probably cry all day too. I just, I'm never going to forget my son. Nobody contacted me. Normally perpetrators at least say things like, I'm sorry or my apologies but I never even heard those words. So their promise in their text messages to their friends that they're going to apologize and reflect all lies. They never apologize. One of them allegedly even had other things in mind. So this is said to be a text message conversation between one of the killers and a fellow classmate.
33:55The killer allegedly texted her non-stop about how he wanted sex which people were shocked for a number of reasons. Someone is dead because of you. And also the fact that this is a 13-year-old talking in this manner, in this aggressively pushy way. We have no idea if this girl is a classmate, a friend, a girlfriend. But it doesn't matter because he's clearly making her uncomfortable. He texts her after the murder. Let's do it. Not like immediately after, but this is what he's thinking about. No, I don't want to. Oh, come on, redacted name. She doesn't respond. Hey, full name. Yes, let's do it.
34:36I don't feel like it. I want to do it so badly, please. I want to do it so much. I think I'm going to go crazy. She doesn't respond. He texts her back. What are you doing? Just laying here. Hey, please. I just really want to do it so badly. Let's just do it once, just once. And he keeps bombarding her with like, hey, hello, hello and she responds right now yes let's do it I promise I'll finish fast I think even just to see these text messages from anyone regardless of age is so disgusting because I mean I'm sure most of us have felt the situation where someone is just so pushy and you're like I'm clearly saying no but they're not taking it seriously but then if I freak out and I'm like hey I said no what Like, is my life in danger?
35:25Is something going to happen to me? And you know what's going on here. She clearly doesn't want it. But the fact that they're 13 and the fact that someone died and this is what one of the killers is thinking about. Once all of this gets out, a South Korean broadcast called The True Story from NBC, they went to go interview all the perpetrators. Anonymously, of course. So they're minors, meaning their voices will be distorted. Their faces will be covered by a mask and a hat, but even then still blurred. so they locate one of the girls' houses and they go knocking. Hi, we're from NBC Broadcasting and we just want to ask you a few questions about the accident in Daejeon.
36:00A girl can be heard screaming through the door. Just leave! But the crew keeps trying. A few hours of this back and forth, the girl finally agrees to do an interview but even the way she does it is so disrespectful. She goes, I'll do the interview. Just go outside for a second. The broadcast was able to interview two of the perpetrators, both girls, and they were asked, Have you been doing since the accident? Like, what's been going on in your mind? One of the girls says, We're feeling guilty and reflecting on it in our own way. I just hope that you guys, the reporters, can stop calling me. If you care about the victim or his family at all, I think you should let the police handle this one.
36:41You guys are truly taking it too far. side note kun's mom was being interviewed so she was selectively talking to reporters she never complained about the reporters i mean the fact that she's saying this is literally just saying stay out of it because the police are handling it and the police are just gonna let me go the reporters ask how the crime even started why did you guys even decide to steal the car the girls respond i mean i found out that my friends were all driving a car and they were all in the car so I joined them. We drove around, we stole money from a doll crane machine, went to a few other areas, had something to eat, rested, hung out.
37:21After that one of my friends asked us to pick him up so we picked him up and then I think we hesitated on where to go next. We were thinking of going to Busan but my friend said it was too early to head all the way to Busan which is a far drive so we went to Daejeon instead. The way she describes this, it doesn't even sound like she's giving a police report or an interview about a murder. It sounds like she's at the grocery store deciding what type of apple they were getting. They're like, oh, then we decided to do this. Like, should we go to Busan or Daejeon? Just the lack of empathy. Her tone is very much, yeah, we killed someone, but what are you going to do about it?
37:56There was no shame, nothing. The public was so shocked that there was only one victim with the way that these girls are describing the day and describing their personalities. Like, how is this possible? And the question is, where the hell are the parents? I mean, it sounds like they didn't even come home for nearly the whole day, 24 hours. Where the hell are the parents? And how much are we to blame the parents in something like this? So I'm not a parent. I don't know if I can even have a clear answer to it. All I know is I was 13. At one point, I never stole a car and killed someone. The girl continues.
38:30We were waiting for a red light and suddenly a police car made a u-turn so the police car was going straight made a u-turn back towards us like all of a sudden so we were scared that we were going to get caught so we ran the red light and hit that motorcycle our car windows were all shattered and the airbags popped the car wasn't even able to drive anymore because you know it was totaled so my friends and i got out and we ran to our limit until the police got us after that we were investigated and then sent home. That's it. The way she describes it, she's not specifically stating that it's the police's fault, but she does insinuate that the police car making the U-turn and scaring them is the reason that they ran that red.
39:14She's not even taking accountability for the fact that they ran the red. She's basically saying if the police car hadn't made a U-turn, we wouldn't have ran that red and we wouldn't have killed someone. The reporters ask, did you guys not hesitate when you decided to run around in a stolen car? Well, we'd done this before in the past, so no. She casually says this as if stealing cars and driving illegally without a license is a fun little hobby, as mundane as crocheting. I'm honestly surprised the reporters are at least trying to hide their disgust. They ask, but you guys at least know that what you did was very illegal, right?
39:50Yeah, but you kept going. Why? Honestly, every student without a license drives nowadays. Not just the high school students, but also the middle school students. They're driving around like us, but they didn't get into an accident, so you don't know about it. But we did. We got into an accident. Wow. It's like the most unapologetic, entitled response they could have ever given, even as an adult with a driver's license. I don't think anyone would give this response. Like, not a single person. Do you guys all know about the age of criminal responsibility? Yeah. So it's clear to the public, these monsters knew that because they weren't 14 years old yet, they wouldn't be punished for killing someone.
40:29They didn't even think that what they did was even that wrong. Side note, the law does state for a very serious crime, minors can be punished by a maximum of two years in a youth detention center. Which, couple of things. I hear juvie in South Korea is nothing like juvie in the US. I hear it's a really nice little therapeutic center where you and your little friends, you and your little criminal buddies hang out and have a good time and play games and play basketball and giggle gaggle. But once this broadcast goes up, people are having a freaking field day, rightfully so. I mean, this was such a blatant disregard for human life.
41:05Not only was it disappointing to see that the nation's children, I mean, there were eight, eight young kids who were thinking like this. Have you seen 13 year olds these days? I mean, they're so woke. They're so politically correct. They're like, I've seen 13 year olds who are incredible activists and these 13 year olds are doing this right now. Like what is going on? This makes you lose hope for the future. The law basically tells them it's okay to do this. So it feels like this massive failure. Some of the fellow classmates of these perpetrators were interviewed and they said, I don't think they're scared of the law.
41:41They used to brag about all the crimes they commit in class. Look, they know the punishment is very minimal since they're 13 and their birthdays didn't pass yet so they know that they're good. They know a lot of older brothers and friends in the youth detention center. I think even if they go, I heard they're going to have fun. From my perspective, I think even if they were sent the biggest punishment, which is two years there, I think they'll have fun, get out, and continue committing crimes.
42:09okay fine if the law says you can't blame the quote kids if the law says that i'm not saying that the law is saying that can you blame the parents because someone has to take accountability right the reporters reach out to the mom of the driver she was interviewed and she said you know my family and i are having a hard time too my son made a mistake all i can say is sorry that's the only thing I can do and I feel like it's not enough okay fine yeah it's not enough here's another thing the public we're not emotional idiots you don't think that we don't know that a perpetrator's family can also be suffering after a crime but why would you even mention it it is so gross I feel like that kind of thinking gives me me me me me like me me me this is what your kids grew up around and look what they've become also what do you mean you feel like it's an it's not enough.
43:01Why don't you get your son to do something then to apologize to the victim's mom? Like, there's so many more things that you could do. Reporters found another perpetrator's dad who was willing to talk, and he just told everyone that his son is reflecting on his actions, and the reporter said, from what we know, this is not the first crime that your son has committed. Yeah, he's committed a few crimes. The police said it was like 21 crimes. I can't handle him, okay? I just can't deal. Anyway, all I can say is I'm sorry. After hearing from the parents, the reporters went back to the two girls, the two perpetrators, and asked, after all that's been said and done, is there anything else that you want to say to the bereaved family?
43:42We're really sorry, but we didn't do it deliberately. It really was a mistake. The person who passed, they don't have any fault in this. Yeah, we know. She continues, is because we ran a red light and we think the only thing we can say is sorry. I OK, this is like a pet peeve of mine. This is an absolute pet peeve. But perpetrators who go on the stand, like even in the US, when killers go to court and they verbally say the victim had no fault in it, it drives me nuts. It drives me nuts. There's so many layers to it. First of all, even if they had fault in anything, you don't get to kill someone.
44:22Second of all, we fucking know. you are the problem. Like, are you, what are you saying? Why are you suddenly trying to be like an activist for the victim? Like, don't blame them. Nobody was blaming them. Nobody. So who do you guys think should hold the blame? The minors who committed the crime? The parents? Or maybe the problem is the existence of the law itself. So after this case goes viral, a lot of netizens were enraged. They are questioning why this law was even put into effect. A researcher from the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice said after the Korean War in 1953. You know, 1950s was a different time.
44:58Kids were not as educated as they are today. Most kids weren't getting a strong education and they were a little bit delayed mentally, physically, emotionally. So we put this law into effect that minors and every age is classified. So minors under the age of 10 that commit a crime are called law violating children. Nothing happens to them. Those between the ages of 10 and 14 are classified as law-breaching minors. Nothing happens to them. Then those between the ages of 14 and 19 are called the criminal youth, and something happens to them, but they're not treated like adults. They're still not treated as killers, even if they literally kill or assault someone.
45:39They still have their own little system that they go through, which is not as harsh as adult trials. But the biggest problem in Korea are not even the children that are between the ages of 14 and 19, because they still face some consequences to a degree. It seems the biggest problem are between the ages of 10 and 13 because they face no consequences. This law hasn't really been updated, reviewed, or changed since the 50s, but this researcher is saying kids are no longer the same. They're not the same as they were in the 50s. First of all, 13-year-olds back in the 50s, they had no idea this law existed.
46:15They didn't have social media to know about this law. they didn't really have news to know about other kids that were committing crimes and got away because of this law. They probably thought that they would be punished if they ever committed a crime. They probably thought that they would be charged as an adult if they committed a crime. The researcher also stated that minors in the 50s, their growth mentally and physically was a bit behind from minors now because you don't have access to the foods that they have now. You don't have access to the education, the mental development, but also social media.
46:43I even see in the US like this conversation and I don't know where I stand and I don't really have an opinion about this, but people were saying 13-year-olds don't look like 13-year-olds from 20 years ago. Like even the way 13-year-olds are dressing, talking, and wearing makeup is very different from 13-year-olds even when I was growing up. So they're saying, you know, times are changing and it's not to say it's for the better or for the worse, probably for the better, but laws need to be updated. According to the National Police Agency's statistics, between 2015 and 2018, there were 28 ,000 cases of minors committing crimes.
47:20Among the 28 ,000 cases in South Korea, and this is just between the ages of 10 and 13, 77 % of these crimes were felonies. Theft, violence, assault, robbery, murder. This is not pickpocketing. You say 77 %? Of those cases, 28 ,000 cases. that's like 20 000 cases yeah a police officer even said these teenagers know that they're not going to be severely punished by law even if they commit a serious crime i mean there are times that these kids just outright tell me i know i'm not going to be punished there are some quote kids that went viral for having quote criminal records there was one and i say quote criminal records because it's not a criminal record like it's there until they turn 14 and then it basically gets wiped.
48:05They're going to grow up to be adults and no one will know. There was one kid who had over 77 crimes. Not a single punishment. Just straight up told the cop, well, it's not like you can punish me anyway. An officer said young offenders know that the police will let them go home after the investigation is over. They don't even worry about getting caught by the police anymore. Their biggest concern is to commit the crime before they get caught. So if they're stealing money, their biggest priority is to spend all that money before they're caught so we can't confiscate it. It's not about getting caught.
48:36Even if we contact their parents, their parents don't care. Even if they're in school and we contact the administrators, these types of kids are already considered too far gone. Nobody wants to help them. So even though politicians are staying firm on this law, and side note, there are a lot of politicians who promise to lower the age of criminal responsibility, meaning minors younger than 14 should be punished. That one of them is including President Yoon, the current president of South Korea. One of his campaign points before he was elected into office was to lower that age to 13. I don't know how it's going.
49:08He's saying that he has a whole team together to make effect of this law. But it seems like most politicians for years, they use this as their little talking point. And once they're in that position of power, it is silent. It is crickets. A lot of people don't like it. Why are they not changing? Some people think that, you know what it is? Honestly, I think it's like what happens in the U.S. Sometimes there is a good thing that could be good for everyone, but people don't like it because they just want to talk politics. So instead of being like, hey, we should lower the age of criminal responsibility, these two political sides, the conservatives and the Democrats are like, well, let's talk about why these kids are committing crimes.
49:48It's because the education system. And then they're like, well, you are the one that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, well, we think the education system should be blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, I feel like both parties just want the same thing just fucking lower the age and then i mean i do see some points where it's like yes it does seem to be a deeper issue than just the law but i think there are easy ways to fix it and the argument is that there are a lot of other countries that have their own problems don't get me wrong but japan and south korea are constantly under fire they are the two countries that have this said at 13 years old and it's different from the way that other countries said it.
50:24So in the US, I think it's there is an age for federal crimes, but it's almost a case by case basis. You know, you commit murder, you might be tried as an adult, it just really depends on the situation. It's not like, oh, when is your date of birth? You're good to go. So most places they have case by case basis situations. I think the only place that has been under fire for having too low, too young of an age of responsibility is the UK, which is not that young. I think it's 11, if I recall. I think the UAE has a pretty low one too, like nine. But I think the UAE, it might be for specific cases like felonies, like murder, assault.
51:06But again, one of the voices is, fine, we lower the age to 13 like the president wants, but what if more 12-year-olds start committing crimes? Do we lower it again and then again and then again? and my thinking is like yeah I mean I don't know why adults have a tendency of and I'm an adult adults have a tendency of being 50 and being like 13 year olds don't know anything and I'm like were we not all 13 like I knew not to kill people when I was 13 I knew not to assault people and kill people when I was 13 so I don't know what you were doing at 13 I think you're exposing yourself a little bit some people are saying that we need to just focus on why children are committing these crimes and it's just become a whole political debate instead of people just trying to protect others.
51:52The public is getting fed up though. They're like, fuck these politicians. Like we don't feel safe. Gunn's mom said, I hope this country lets their children know that if they commit a crime, they will be punished for it. Someone has to let them know this simple concept. I think that's the only way you can even protect innocent children who are alive right now without any harm or hurt from the law breaching minors. The public agrees. It was revealed that seven of the eight kids went back home with basically no consequences, no parole, nothing. The driver of the car, because it was pretty severe, was sent to a youth detention center.
52:28But again, it doesn't even compare to juvie. I don't even think a minor would be sent to juvie for a crime like this in the US. It really doesn't seem like that bad of a place. Like it's no prison, that's for sure. Netizens were outraged. They were commenting things like, the thought that these people can ever change or be fixed is insane to me. Just abolish the law protecting minors. It's clear what's going to happen. We've seen this so many times. The great honorable judge presiding over this case will look at these monsters with pity. The judge will say this and that and excuse their behavior for so young.
53:06Oh, they're so immature. then the great judge will go home, eat a steak dinner while patting himself on the back. I made the right call today. I'm a good judge. Another netizen commented, times have changed. Minors have changed. Why is the law stuck in the past? These days you can even buy a knife on the internet. If we forgive them because of their age, they will never learn that they should never do this. Instead, they will learn if we commit a crime, we will be forgiven because we're young. As adults, we have to teach them how to take responsibility for their mistakes. So we covered the bullying cases where most of the bullies, after burning their victims with hot irons, beating them with pipes, beating them to the point of their face being swollen, they never got punished because they were under 14 years old.
53:48There are a few other viral cases. July 2018, a middle school girl, she took her own life after she was R-worded by two middle school boys. Nothing happened to the boys. they weren't even suspended from school because they were minors they were 13 so she took her own life in july 2021 there was a video of a bunch of 13 year olds harassing random senior citizens for fun just complete strangers saying things like hit me you fucker oh you can't they were not punished either can i just say something okay i saw a lot of we were recently in south Korea and we saw a lot of teenagers in school uniforms.
54:30I think I saw them in school uniforms. Well, we saw a lot of young teens and most of them, they looked like teens you would see anywhere. But there was this one incident where I was in art box with a Korean friend of ours and there was like four teenage kids, all boys. I have never been that scared of teenagers before. They were standing in the middle of the art box and the way that they were talking was so like filthy. I ran around the store avoiding them just so I didn't have to pass them. It was the way that they're talking in the middle of the store so loudly and the curse words they were using.
55:05Like I'm telling you, they're throwing out sea bombs, like just nonstop. Some of the worst curse words you could say in Korea. And they would call each other that as like jokes. They'd be like, oh, like just nonstop. And even my friend was like, yeah, like we stay away from kids like this and we're like both in our 20s full-grown adults and we're like okay yeah we should avoid them like we were scared it is such a hot topic in south korea that there's even a whole k-drama talking about juvenile crime yeah even like they're scary but then even knowing these stories that makes it even more scary because they probably know this too oh yeah that even confirms their belief that they're untouchable it's yeah they walk around like they're untouchable.
55:53It was bizarre. And the fact that my Korean friend who was born and raised in Korea was like, yeah, we just stay away from them. I'm like, okay, that's weird. There is a K-drama called Juvenile Justice, and it's literally based off of juvenile crimes because it's getting that bad. The netizens came together to post a petition to the Blue House, aka the White House, and it read, please severely punish the teenagers who caused a deadly accident with a stolen car. More than 1 million people have signed the petition, which means the Blue House had to at least respond. But they disappointed most of the public because they stated that they will be looking into revising the law or like, let's think about it.
56:30They're just avoiding that conversation. But instead, they're saying, OK, fine, we're going to change the fee to driving without a license. So side note, a lot of rental car companies were under a lot of fire during this case because they were known to rent out cars to minors. This kept coming up. So the Blue House said instead, instead of fixing the law or do anything like the president promised during his whole campaign, during his whole election campaign, we're going to start fining rental car agencies more money. So we used to fin them$80 every time they were found to rent a car to a minor, but now we're going to start fining them$800.
57:05Still, that doesn't change anything for the kids. Yeah, it doesn't change anything for anyone. Okay, this random rental car shop owner pays$800, but someone else dies? Like, I don't think that matters. The$800, does that matter? The public was not satisfied. They wrote, a country that guarantees the murderer's human rights more than the victims. So the whole concern is that these kids are making mistakes. And when they grow up, they shouldn't have a criminal record. In this world, there are people who don't change even though they get an education. So please abolish this law. A country that is beneficial for perpetrators is nonsense.
57:41I feel so bad for the guy who passed away. But maybe, maybe we're just all idiots, okay? Maybe the public are idiots and the politicians and lawmakers, they're just educated and smart and they know stuff that we don't know. Maybe these kids have changed. Maybe they're going to be the next superstar activists of our generation. Maybe they use this incident to learn, grow and become better and they make sure that nobody else does what they did. A year or two after the crime, so very recently, reporters found out what the perpetrators were up to now. At least three of them were back to committing crimes.
58:18Three of them assaulted younger middle school students and stole their money. Let's call one of the students Student A. He said he was 13 when he was forced to hand over his allowance to them. He didn't realize how serious it was about to get because, you know, it kind of started like a joke. They were just smacking him around saying, hey, give me your money. Like a joke. But soon they started hitting him for real, punching him like they were in a deadly boxing match for their lives. They shot him with BB guns. they forced him to bring whatever gold he could find in the house. Student A said that he listened to them and he did it because they're kind of famous in the nation for being killers, basically.
58:55So he was so scared to say no to them. You're kidding me. Yeah. They stole nearly a thousand dollars and one day Student A said, I don't have anything else. My family doesn't have anything more to give. They tied him up and beat him for five hours straight and burnt his wrist with a lighter. He still has the scars to prove it. Student A was unconscious near the end. And when they basically left him for dead, he realized he couldn't feel his legs. There was something severely wrong. He panicked. He couldn't even move properly. He told his parents what happened. He was rushed to the hospital. The family alerted the police who, quote, opened an investigation.
59:34You know how they did it? They called the perpetrators and said, hey, we heard that you're beating up people. Can you come down to the office to give a statement? They didn't show up and the police were like, eh, not my problem. Guess why the perpetrators didn't show up? They're too busy waterboarding another student. Student B said that he was dragged into a sauna and assaulted by this group. He said that they jumped him, waterboarded him, splashed cold water all over him. They wrestled him, punched him in the face repeatedly. They were saying things like, God, I just want to punch you. You just look so punchable.
1:00:09Two of Student B's teeth were knocked out. His hair was cut by the perpetrators. And he said they kept taunting him that his hair was dirty so they had to shave it off. It was just for humiliation. Student B said that he was crying while they were cutting his hair. And they said to him, why are you crying? Do you need to be hit more? I don't know. Do you guys feel like the politicians are right? Because I don't feel like they changed. I don't think their time of reflection helped them grow into law-abiding citizens. and I cannot imagine a world where they are going to become positive contributing members to society.
1:00:40In fact, I feel like they'd be dangerous to be around, especially if you don't know who these people are. They're adults. They could be your co-worker. They could be the guy living next to you. How would I know? They could be the handyman. They could be daycare workers, doctors, teachers, nurses. How would we know? But it's not just this story. There are statistics. According to the Ministry of Justice in Korea, 12 % of underage offenders become repeat criminals. They keep committing crimes. Meanwhile, adults that commit crimes and go to jail and are punished, only 4.5 % of them re-offend. And again, I'm sure there's discrepancies in getting caught.
1:01:20Maybe adults just don't get caught again. But still, it's not really a great statistic to look at when you're arguing, no, no, no, this is to help the kids. I don't think so. Do you guys remember Kun telling his colleague that he was going to go eat something yummy with his friend after his last delivery? She blamed herself for all of this. Which is crazy because you know what I'm going to say. Like when you feel guilt, even though it logically doesn't make sense, there's no reason for her to ever feel guilt for this. The eight killers don't even feel guilt, but she feels so much guilt and it's heartbreaking.
1:01:54She said that around 12.07 a.m. The accident happened at 12.08. 12 0 7 a.m gun called her and was like hey it's my last delivery should probably take less than 20 minutes do you want to grab something yummy to eat she agreed they hung up his accident happened one minute after she hung up and she said if i had just spoken a few more words or if maybe i talked a little slower or maybe i just kept him on the phone a little bit longer maybe he could have survived. I should have just talked to him for even just one more second. I just feel so much regret. She wrote an open letter online hoping for change.
1:02:38She said that Khan was so excited. He had gotten into college and he was just so excited to start his life. And then he gets into this accident. Because of COVID, the start of university was delayed and he told her he wants to be the man in his family. He got a job. He was delivering food every day and he works so hard and she was always worried about him because you know he drives a motorcycle and he's working all day and he always reassured her i always wear a helmet nothing's gonna happen to me okay i'm careful i never speed i never break the law you don't have to worry and because of those few seconds she's never gonna see him for the rest of his life she said the perpetrator's car didn't even look back at my friend who died on the spot but because they're under the age of 14 they all went home.
1:03:22Only one was sent to the youth detention center. I understand the law of breaching minor law but they're being protected for their mistakes so they can live in the future without any criminal records but how can people who murder a man and run away be treated like immature minors who made a quote mistake? After what they did they're still laughing and acting confident without any feelings of guilt or remorse. I doubt that they're more immature than an adult. People who are reading this, just know this could be you. This could be your children, your acquaintance, your close friend could be a victim of them.
1:03:58How can the law of breaching minors be applied even when a man dies like that? Please help my friend so he doesn't feel injustice even in death. Please help me to prevent this from happening to someone else. But so far, that was in 2020 and nothing has changed. What are your thoughts on this case? Please leave it in the comments. What are your thoughts? I mean, do you think the law should be changed? Do you think it should be a case-by-case basis? And please stay safe. I'll see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye.
From the publisher
In the dark of night, eight Korean teenagers raced for their lives, one by one, as their “friends” fell, taken down by the relentless pursuer.
One of the girls, unable to bear the pace any longer, slowed to a stop. As she turned to face her fate, she saw the shadowy figure closing in on her, and with a wry smirk, whispered, "God, that was really rough."
Moments later, she was tackled to the ground. These teenagers were not the victims in this case, but rather, the predators. They had mercilessly taken the life of a man, and now, with the thrill of chase gone… they felt at ease. Because they knew they would get away with it.
Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com
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