In 1998, my daughter, a Korean-American, was physically assualted by a Korean bus driver in front of witnesses at 8:00 p.m. My daugher had asked the driver to turn down his radio. He stopped the bus and began to punch and kick her in front of witnesses. She had major brusing about her face, neck, and arms. She got off at the next stop and immediately went to the police station with four witnesses who stated that the driver appeared to be extermly drunk. The police determined who the driver was by contacting the bus company and giving them the bus number. The driver had gone home for the evening. The police called his house and asked him to come to the police station. Though the police knew where he lived, they never went to get him. The driver did not show up at the police station until 4:00 a.m. in the morning. During this 8 hour wait, the police continually tried to talk my daughter out of pressing charges. My daughter did press charges but was never called to court and was never informed about what was done to the driver.

All this was done to a young lady that noone could tell was not Korean. We are just thankful that four witnesses (two high school kids and two college kids) took the time to file report with the police.

As you noted, Korea has a lot of room for progress in terms of women's issues. Korean assault victims aren't treated any better by the police, and their CSI sucks period, whether they are investigating a burglary, rape, or even homicide. The killer of Jamie Penich remains free because the Korean police were sloppy handling the evidence at the crime scene and investigating suspects while the trail was still fresh. The Korean police depend on confessions from obvious suspects and don't have the skills or the patience to conduct a rigorous investigation.

Despite my being obviously shaken, and slightly bruised and bleeding, the two male police officers and one male police chief proceeded to ask me questions about my home country, my work, my feelings about Korean food and culture, and to generally mill about. Okay, I understand this is the Korean way, but those sorts of questions seem appropriate for social settings, not for police investigations. Perhaps they were trying to ease my anxiety, but their tone was flirtatious and inconsiderate, jovial even. Had it not been for the presence of my male foreign teacher co-workers (who live in nearby apartments and rushed to my aid when I called, bless their hearts), I don't know that I could have handled all that nonsense. I'm lucky in that I was not actually raped. I believe my attacker was drunk, because he attempted to use no weapons, seemed a bit clumsy, and I was able to fight him off and chase him out of my apartment after about only 5 minutes of struggle. Those 5 minutes led to two weeks of daily doctor's visits for a severely strained neck and two months of sleeping with the lights on, of course.

I was attacked at about 4 in the morning, and my manager arrived at my apartment just as soon as she was able, insisting I see a doctor. She was shocked by what had happened, and very motherly and supportive. I was taken to an oriental medicine clinic adjacent to my school, and because I had no serious injuries, the treatment was sufficient. HOWEVER, I insisted on coming into work, mostly because I was still in shock I think, and no one protested much. I worked 11 hours that day.

The police "investigation" was ridiculous, almost funny in retrospect, in that it's like something from a bumbling cop film. The police chief said that his officers were going to pose as delivery men and knock on all the doors of known male residents in nearby apartment complexes. They were going to see if any of the men who answered had injured fingers (because I bit the man so hard I nearly loosened my teeth). I didn't hear from them for a week and a half or so, until they arrived mid-afternoon one day at the school where I teach, asked me to first spend several minutes visualizing my attacker (whom I saw for maybe several seconds when my entrance-way light clicked on as I chased him out), asked me to step into the manager's office, and proceeded to show me snapshots of various men on the police chief's cell phone. I felt like I was being mocked. The snapshots were just head shots from old police records of men living in nearby buildings. Some of the head shots were older than 10 years even! And of course, now I could rest assured that I had several previously convicted men living in close proximity. Whew, what a relief. I cooperated to the best of my ability, said the head shots didn't seem to resemble the attacker, but that I couldn't be sure, and pointed out the man who looked the most like the attacker. At this point the police chief said something like, "Oh yeah. Good. Yeah, that must be him. We'll get him. What a bad man. We'll go pose as delivery men and knock on his door." Wait, hold up, didn't you do that already? And if not, what HAVE you been doing for the past week and a half? I never did hear from the police again, and I didn't think there was much else I could do. I saved the man's hair in a plastic bag for awhile, but then I was so sickened by it, and it seemed a little pointless, you know?

I might point out that my experience in Korea has been wonderful in general, but as far as women's issues go, this country has a lot of growing up to do.