Court Fines Korean Man Who Insulted Foreigner

A domestic court yesterday fined for a 30-something man for insulting a foreigner.

The Bucheon branch of the Incheon District Court said it fined a 31-year-old company employee one million won (846 U.S. dollars) for insulting a person under the Penal Code.

The ruling said, “Given the circumstances, Park’s hateful speech on foreigners of a certain religion or from a region is recognized as having humiliated the victim.”

“We determined this based on prosecutors’ charges that Park, who was drunk, said insulting things to the victim and didn’t review whether they were racially discriminatory. Considering that he admitted fault and reflected on what he did, we consider it reasonable to end this case with a fine.”

The ruling added, “Since this case was exceptional because the victim was a foreigner, we applied the same standard as in other general insult cases. Had this case had been critical, it would have gone through the regular trial process.”

A prosecutor said cautiously, “We prosecuted (the defendant) for making insults since it was recognized that his comments scarred the victim’s dignity.”

On July 10, Indian national Bonojit Hussain, 27, a research professor at SungKongHoe University, was talking to a Korean woman in English on a bus heading for Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, at 9 p.m.

The suspect allegedly told Hussain, “You dirty xxxx, you stink, shut up.”

Hussein brought the suspect to police and filed a complaint.

kchwang@donga.com