영국사람

ATEK Death threats: A Whodunnit?!

I was informed of the death threat against ATEK President Greg Dolezal shortly before they hit the Korean blogosphere last week. At first, I thought it may be an AES nutjob gone postal, but after Mr. X a Dave’s ESL Cafe poster called JohnFlory decided to try and pin the blame on me, I spent a few minutes (and really, that was all it took) to take a deeper look.

Here is what I did:

• I got the email address from the AES site.
• I plugged that address into Facebook.

Simple right?

The email address is linked to somebody in the US. Whilst their profile is locked, I could browse their friends. Total friends outside of the US: 0

If the AES email address and the one received by ATEK are one and the same, then the address has probably been spoofed. It is highly unlikely that this person even knows of ATEK, and I doubt a US citizen would knowingly allow his email to be used to send death threats to South Korea. If this is the case, it is pretty easy to find out where it originated.

Spoofing an email is pretty easy, especially if you use gmail. The good news is, the header information of any gmail mail sent from outside of gmails browser composer will contain ip address information (though posting from within it will hide the original ip).

Open up the header and look for the ip. Check it was not sent via proxy (though a proxy would not usually hide the originating ip) by googling the ip along with the word “proxy”. If it passes that check, enter the ip into a site that tells you where it is located, and you have just narrowed down your search.

As I found when I had to track down a message supposedly left by the AES leader (though it turned out to be Mr. X somebody else), Korean ip traces are very effective: if the person used a PC bang, the name and address of the business will show up on the trace. From that, you can get access to their CCTV and find out exactly who it was.

Happy hunting!

Public Figures and Defamation

There is a posting up on ESLCafe at the moment about somebody who wants to tell a tale without breaking Korea’s libel laws. A posting by the user dorian_gray has linked to a nice ‘clarification’ of the laws in Korea when the ‘victim’ is a public figure, and any content posted is true. The article from Korealaw.com, is reproduced below (bolding mine):

Publication of criticism on Internet concerning public figures does not constitute defamation, the Supreme Court says

Under Article 307of the Criminal Law of Korea, publication of any facts that may bring another person into disrepute is a criminal act, but, under Article 310 of the Criminal Law, such publication may not be a punishable act, if the facts published are true and that the purpose of the publication is to promote public interest.

Relying on Article 310 of the Criminal Law, the Supreme Court of Korea recently ruled that publication of the facts on Internet concerning sexual harassment by a national university professor of a female student is not a punishable act, thereby reversing the district court’s guilty decision (2003 Do 2137; Decision rendered on 04/29/05). In rendering its decision, the Court stated that while Article 307 is intended to protect reputation of individuals, Article 310 is intended to balance such rights of individuals against the rights to freedom to express since the freedom to express is one of the essential basic rights in democratic society that guarantees free exchange of ideas and opinions and the right to know possessed by the citizens. The Court also stated that although the injury to the reputation of the person concerned may be grave, the publication appeared to be intended for calling for a thorough investigation of the alleged sexual harassment act and elimination of sexual violence occurring within school campus, so the said publication may have been necessary for promotion of public interest.

Because of the Court’s decision, debate and criticism over social issues through Internet would likely be further expanded.

I am reposting this here because a number of people find my site by searching for information about libel in Korea, and there is a lot of misinformation out there. Some people believe that only journalists are protected by Article 310, and there are some who will argue that the truth is never a defence in Korea. This is not true. As long as what you say is in the public interest, particularly in the case of ‘defamation’ of public figures, the law will protect you.

Safe Schools Korea

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the person responsible for running the non-profit organisation “Safe Schools Korea”. He was interested in some information contained on this blog, and in conversation he revealed some information about the work he is doing in Korea.

I had heard of the organisation before, but I did not really know just how much interest there has been in the NGO of late, as I have been somewhat withdrawn from the Korean blogosphere.

So, with permission, I have decided to present some of the information for people to digest and comment on:

• Safe Schools Korea works directly with police forces around the world. In a matter of days, the founder had information that I had been unable to access in months of trying! They are able to track people around the world, so that somebody who has worked outside of their home country can be checked, and a person who flees overseas can be tracked!
• Safe Schools Korea are working with Korean Congressmen who are hoping to further the mission of the NGO.

So… what is the mission? Safe Schools Korea are in a position to make the current E-2 headaches disappear. They could also cause the Korean public to reassess their opinion of E-2 holders as being little more than a bunch of criminals.

Safe Schools Korea have the ability, and in some cases, the technology, to prove the KIS with secure criminal background checks. These checks can be carried out and given directly to the Korean Immigration Service, and so the checks would be guaranteed as both thorough and secure.

The Korean Immigration Bureau know all about Safe Schools. They have received letters from the British Embassy, Australian Embassy, New Zealand Embassy, British Police, Australian Police, NZ Police, our US / Canada registered data provider, as well as details on our South African fingerprint technology (we use fingerprint scanners to check SA records), all telling them that the information Safe Schools provides is exactly the same as if they received it directly from the police of the relevant country.

Here’s the kicker… at the moment, the KIS prefer teachers to check themselves!  We all know that the US system ensures that somebody could be a criminal in one state, move to another state, and check clean. The UK system is not much better. At the moment, teachers coming from the UK can present the KIS with a “Disclosure Scotland” background check. I have completed one of these checks done for a job I had in the UK, and it was a joke!

I applied for the Disclosure Scotland check shortly after moving house in the UK. I was applying for a local government license, and so had to get my check completed. Disclosure Scotland sent me a letter requesting a proof of my new address. I was waiting on a bank statement and so I was going to send that to them when they decided not to bother, and they sent me my clean criminal record without checking who I was!

Now… it would have been clean (and the one I got when I came to Korea was from Scotland Yard, so that was properly checked), but the fact it… I could have been ANYBODY!

Another thing to consider is that, in the UK, a spent conviction will not (or should not) show on a Disclosure Scotland check. For “at risk” groups, we have the CRB check (comparable to the Canadian VSS). This check can only be carried out by authorised parties such as schools, hospitals, etc, and certain agencies. Safe Schools Korea can carry out these checks!

The criticism that this is a simple Private Investigators operation, or somebody’s attempting to make a buck for himself is one mentioned on Brian’s site. I couldn’t disagree more. Safe Schools Korea have resources available to them that would prevent undesirables from coming to Korea. Safe Schools Korea know how people with records are beating the system. In some cases, they know who they are. The KIS methods are flawed, and they need to be fixed. An organisation that can properly check the backgrounds of people before they arrive is sorely needed, and Safe Schools Korea are in a position to manage the system in a way that the KIS can only dream of!

If foreigners get behind this NGO, visa applications would be easier to manage, and parents would be calmed by the fact that all foreign teachers entering on E-2 visas had been properly checked at the point of entry.