Sex Crimes in Korea: A Sentencing Problem

I could not find a link for this column "blip" of an article (The Korea Times, p. 2, Sat/Sun, Nov. 21-22, 2009), so I will retype it. There are so, so many problems with the article and its reflection of Korea's apparent tolerance of sex crimes that I think I don't want to even comment on it (though, I will ask, "Why bother about spending millions of dollars on "branding" your country when you essentially condone child rape?") :

Man Gets 8 Months in Jail for Raping Boy

A court sentenced a 20-year-old man to eight months in jail for raping a boy.

Lee was booked but not physically detained in December 2007 after he lured a seven-year-old boy to a neighborhood public restroom and raped him for 20 minutes.

The Seoul Nambu District Court said, "The accused didn't show any signs of remorse and committed a similar crime after being convicted twice before.

"It is inevitable he will be incarcerated, especially considering the mental stress the seven-year-old victim is undergoing," the court said.

Lee was scheduled to stand trial without detention but the court took him into custody, taking his repeated refusal to appear in court as contempt.