By Hopefully none of you all reading this get any ideas:
A local high court found a 46-year-old man not guilty of having sex with a runaway teenage girl, saying their liaison was neither forced nor in exchange for money.
The Busan District Court Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that acquitted the man, identified as Kim, of charges related to the violation of the law covering the protection of minors.
Kim bought food for the 16-year-old girl, who was wandering near Seoul Station, and allowed her to stay at his home in December 2006. He was indicted for having sex with her while the two lived together for about six months.
“The girl had already been homeless for about two years before meeting Kim, and he did not control her after offering his house as a shelter to her request. So we don’t acknowledge the prosecution’s claim that Kim made the minor (engage in sexual activity) away from her parents’ protection,’’ the court said. [Korea Times via Brian in Jeollanam-do]
The age of consent in Korea being at 13 is incredibly low, than again Hawaii’s age of consent used to be 14 years old.
This case caused me to think back to a prior posting about Korean sailors having sex with young teenagers on the small island nation of Kiribati. According to the Korea Times article from that story, the age of consent in Korea is 19. Maybe the article is referring to the age of consent meaning that women can sell themselves for sex at age 19?
11:33 pm on July 5th, 2009 1
I found the global World Cup of Consent chart out of curiosity.
http://www.ageofconsent.com/ageofconsent.htm
Korea’s 13 is tied with Spain and Nigeria yet still comes ahead of Mexico, Chile, and Paraguay where the consenting kids are not even officially “teens” (12).
Next up a notch at 14 are China, Canada, Italy and Austria.
World’s highest age of consent is Tunisia at 20.
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July 7th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
You are of course forgetting Iran which allows the marriage of kids older than 9. It’s a Muhammed thing….
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12:22 am on July 6th, 2009 2
“The age of consent in Korea being at 13 is incredibly low”
Just a guess… but I bet there is an “age of consent” and there is an “Age of Consent”…
…meaning if you are a pot-smoking English teacher with a fake degree or your are one of those criminal GI animals… and you meet your 14 year-old girlfriend… well… let me know how that works out for you.
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11:55 pm on July 6th, 2009 3
The legal age of consent is 13, meaning anything younger then that is statutory rape. But there are other laws on the books to “protect children” that can be applied to any girl under the age of 19.
Specifically the ones covering exchanging money / gifts for sex. The relationship cannot be commercial in nature. Also the man can not “take advantage” of the girls “immaturity” to trick her into sex. Some can / may argue that the immaturity one applies all the time, but its usually decided on a case-by-case basis. Also how much the girls parents convince her to say “he tricked me” plays a part. Safest method is to simply not get involved with the girls to begin with.
Whether the 13 is too low is a debate for the Koreans themselves to have. We all know what went on back when we were in that 13-16 year range, everyone one high school was “getting it on”. Teenage sex is a problem the Koreans will never admit too.
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