The Crossbow Incident: A South Korean's breaking point

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The Crossbow Incident: A South Korean's breaking point

A fired professor who went to prison for the attempted murder of a judge has become a hero to some South Koreans. A new movie, "Unbowed," tells the story.

By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times

March 8, 2012, 4:31 p.m.

Reporting from Seoul—

 

It began when an out-of work math professor who had just lost a decision in civil court confronted the judge with a crossbow.

Now, five years later, the entire South Korean judiciary system is under siege, and the professor, free after serving time in prison for attempted murder, has become an underground hero of sorts.

Prosecutors called Kim Myung-ho a terrorist during his 2007 criminal trial, in which he contended that he had meant only to scare Judge Park Hong-woo. The judge had just ruled against him in a wrongful-termination lawsuit and was returning to his apartment when the attack took place.

But for some, Kim is a Korean version of the Michael Douglas character in the 1993 film "Falling Down," an average citizen who became unhinged by his anger at society.

That perspective has been enhanced by a popular new film based on the case. "Unbowed" has become a surprise box office hit, the third-highest-grossing film this year in South Korea.

Legal experts say it has attracted 3.3 million moviegoers by tapping into long-brewing public resentment toward judges, who are viewed by many here as aloof and biased in favor of the nation's elite.

A recent survey of 1,100 South Koreans by Good Law, a civil watchdog group that monitors legal professionals, found that 77% of respondents had lost faith in the judiciary. More than 80% said the success of "Unbowed" is directly related to the public's mistrust of judges.

The film's popularity has unleashed a flurry of newspaper articles with headlines such as "Hard time for judges: Would humble gestures help?" It has also caused concern among court officials in Seoul that it could encourage further violence against judges.

A series of public forums has followed, including one hosted by Seoul's Central District Court that was meant to clear the air between judges and citizens. Instead, several people in the packed auditorium tried to rush the stage. "Thugs! Robbers!" one woman shouted. Another called out, "Criminals!" The moderator tried to calm the crowd: "It seems that all these things that have built up inside you are coming out today."

Seoul National University law professor Cho Guk, who was at the session, said public resentment has been fueled by judicial rulings that seem to favor the privileged.

As an example, he pointed to a Seoul appeals court's suspension of an embezzlement conviction against Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo. The court cited what it said was Chung's crucial role in helping the South Korean economy rebound from the Asian financial crisis, Cho said.

"People see how a corporate CEO who embezzles millions receives a suspended sentence while a normal businessman gets sent to prison for stealing a fraction of that. Judges need to make more effort at issuing fairer judgments," Cho told the gathering.

"Like we see in the movie 'Unbowed,' the judges have this haughty image in the eye of the public: 'I'm an elite and the only one who knows the truth.'"

"Unbowed" screenwriter Han Hyun-keun, who met with Kim in prison, calls him "an honest man who reached his breaking point."

Kim was fired after pointing out a question on his university's entrance exam that he said was unfair. A dispute ensued and the school fired him, saying he had criticized colleagues who wrote the exam.

"It was wrong for him to take the crossbow to the judge's house," Han said. "But the central facet of the movie isn't about that action; it's about the system that might lead him to such an act. South Korea is improving. But judges still have incredible power."

Kim, 55, said in a recent interview that the movie accurately portrays his battle with the South Korean justice system. "It's realistic; that's why people want to see it," he said. "It portrays my war with the courts."

After four years in prison, Kim is apparently unrepentant.

 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-south-korea-crossbow-20120309,0,7117040.story

Out of Jail, Ex-Professor and His Crossbow Fight South Korea's Judiciary

March 13, 2012 12:00 am

By CHOE SANG-HUN, The New York Times / 

SEOUL, South Korea -- The image on the cover of Kim Myung-ho's self-published book neatly captures his attitude toward the South Korean judiciary. It shows Mr. Kim, a former mathematics professor, standing defiantly, a law book in one hand and a crossbow in the other.

His book's title: "Judges, Who Do You Think You Are?"

Mr. Kim's outrage has resonated with South Koreans, with a movie about his dispute with the South Korean judicial system selling more than 3.5 million tickets since it was released in January. And Mr. Kim's crossbow is more than a prop.

He actually brandished one in a January 2007 confrontation with an appeals court judge who had rejected Mr. Kim's claim that Sungkyunkwan University had wrongfully terminated him. At some point in the showdown, an arrow flew. Mr. Kim said no one was hit. But the judge, Park Hong-woo, said he was wounded, and Mr. Kim was sentenced to four years in prison.

Editorial writers and Internet bloggers have labeled Mr. Kim a "terrorist" whose "quixotic delusion" led him to shoot Judge Park. But some South Koreans have likened Mr. Kim to Robin Hood, a testimony to the depth of the antijudiciary sentiment in South Korea.

The movie about his fight, "Unbowed," has revived the controversy. "It was like setting a match to gasoline," said Kim Dae-in, president of the Good Law, a civic group that monitors the justice system. "Mistrust of the judiciary has reached an explosive point. Actions like Mr. Kim's can happen again any time." A survey by the group recently found that 77 percent of respondents agreed that court trials were "unfair."

Since the film's release, the Supreme Court has lamented that a "fictional" movie was "inciting unfounded mistrust of the justice system." And the conservative daily newspaper Dong-A Ilbo said in an editorial, "Moviegoers flocking to a film that glorifies a character like him raises concerns about the dignity of our society."

Kim Myung-ho, 54, is ready to fight back.

"To those who call me a terrorist, I ask, 'Was the French Revolution terrorism?' " he said in an interview. "What I did in 2007 was righteous rebellion."

And the Korean Bar Association said, "The fact that, within a week of its release, a million people went to see a movie that encourages resistance to the judiciary calls for soul-searching and a change in attitude."

The fight is rooted in Kim Myung-ho's firing by Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul in 1996. He sued for wrongful termination, and Judge Park ultimately rejected that claim. After months of picketing courthouses and sending hundreds of letters of complaint to the Supreme Court, Mr. Kim said he lost all hope of justice and decided to deliver the judge "a shock."

So on the evening of Jan. 15, 2007, Mr. Kim confronted Judge Park as he was about to take an elevator to his apartment in Seoul. "You call that a verdict?" Mr. Kim said, aiming his loaded crossbow at the judge.

Kim Do-hyun, a law professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said that, while he found it difficult to dispute the verdict against Mr. Kim, "The problem was the way the trial was handled."

"Judges are so disconnected from the rest of the public that they live in their own world," he said. "They often make rulings that people just can't understand."

Mistrust of judges is hardly new in South Korea. Billionaire tycoons convicted of embezzlement or tax evasion rarely spend a day in jail, and a study by Professor Kim of Dongguk University found that 82 percent of people in civil cases were not represented by lawyers, mostly because they could not afford one.

Legal experts trace the growing public resentment to what they say is a highly insular and hierarchical culture in the justice system. Until this year, all judges were selected based on their scores on an annual written examination, regardless of formal education, and then prepared for the bench at a government training center.

"Because judges aren't elected and we don't have a jury system, the public has no power of oversight," said Kim Dae-in of the Good Law group. "The whole system is vulnerable to corruption and mistrust."

The judiciary has begun experimenting with trials by jury. It is also phasing out the old hiring system, replacing it with formal law schools and a new bar exam.

Kim Myung-ho, the crossbow-wielding mathematician who is now out of prison and still out of a job, remains defiant. His book -- published last month by his own company, Crossbow Kim Myung-ho, because no mainstream publisher would take it -- warns, "Judges, if you screw up like that, you may get whacked."

"What I did was not a crime," he said in the interview. "I am filled with hatred for judges who are worse than gangsters or the Mafia. I will continue to work to reveal what they really are."

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/out-of-jail-ex-professor-and-his-crossbow-fight-south-koreas-judiciary-226561/?p=0