A South Korean pastor once hailed as a hero for helping North Korean defectors escape to safety has been jailed for sexually abusing minors.
Chun Ki-won was sentenced to five years in prison last week for abusing six teenage victims between 2016 and 2023, all of whom are either North Korean refugees or children of refugees, according to the Seoul Central District Court.
“The nature of the crime was bad considering the circumstances, method, content, period, and number of crimes,” the judge said, according to the court. The judge added that Chun had molested the teenagers while “in a position where he has absolute influence over the victims as a school principal.”
Chun was head of Christian aid organization Durihana, which he claimed had helped more than 1,000 defectors reach Seoul since 1999. According to the organization’s website, it runs a boarding school for North Korean children to be “taught the Christian faith.”
What’s the chance that people will blame “neo-confucianism” instead of late-stage capitalism? Not to say that confucianism isn’t patriarchal, but the examples shown from Occupied Korea looks more like examples specific to capitalism most of the time but people will ignore it and try to fit in confucianism narrative which doesn’t make as much sense.