To the best of my understanding, the biggest crime problem is South Korea is sex-related crimes/assaults. It is outrageous, and yet sadly not surprising to learn of the particular bias in such cases against expat women.

I want to keep the focus of this thread on this particular case/crime, but due to negligence by my employer and very bad medical care/practice I returned to the U.S. permanently disabled. If the same scenario had happened to me in America, I most definitely would have sued, and legally prevailed.

I knew to pursue such matters in South Korea would necessitate my return there and to wait out the long and likely fruitless judicial process. Although medical records in the U.S. certainly support my condition and the result of my "treatment" in Korea, attempting to verify and provide hard evidence in Korea would be nearly impossible.

When the U.S. consulate twice requested medical records from the "hospital" in Seoul prior to my release, both times the hospital did not comply. I was amazed the U.S consulate and state department did not become more aggressive. Finally, in the days before I departed Seoul forever (I would have died if I had remained in Korea much longer) some reps from the consulate showed up at the hospital. Guess what? They were Korean, and believed all the lies the head doctor told them. In fact, the informed the U.S. state department that I "refused to leave Korea," which was a mind-boggling lie, and yet one, because it came from the Korean folks at the U.S. Consulate was ultimately believed and told to my family. (Of course, I arrived back in the States 24-hours later, in very poor condition, so it certainly conflicted with reports of my refusal to leave the torture chamber/hospital.) The U.S. consulate simply allowed the hospital to avoid any responsibility in my case because they never compiled with release of any medical records, and were never forced to do so, or punished for non-compliance.

Sorry to derail the discussion, but I wanted underscore one of the main points of the ANET's original post/story. Expats are simply at a huge legal disadvantage in South Korea (or as I now refer to it: "North Korea Lite).