Diplomats Apparently Allowed to Drive Drunk in Seoul
by Richardson ~ December 13th, 2006. Filed under: Korean Culture.A Chinese diplomat at the wheel of a car with diplomatic license plates refused to take a breathalyzer. . . The police asked the Chinese diplomat to provide a breath test and to show his identification card. . . But he refused until officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Chinese Embassy arrived there to confirm his identification as a diplomat. . . He left without taking the test with three passengers, all Chinese diplomats.
The police said that the Chinese diplomat’s denial to show his identification was quite strange because he would have been waved on if he had simply proved his diplomatic status.
[. . .]
The police said that usually when foreign diplomats show their identification during the breath test for alcohol, the police allow them to go and report all the details to the ministry of foreign affairs. (emphasis added)
The problem I see with this is that a diplomat would allowed to drive drunk! Not being charged is one thing, but what if they drove off and killed someone? I mean besides a payment of a couple million won to the family of the deceased?
December 13th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
this is not a surprise.
anyone with ties to the SK govt. can drive drunk in seoul.
December 14th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I was surprised that they were dumb enough to admit it.
December 14th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Nothing new. Along with the always popular “I don’t speak Korean” tactic, when the police have been called - perhaps, theoretically, just for example, because there are a bunch of foreigners standing around a fire in the woods drinking beer and singing dirty songs - one way to avoid prosecution is to just pretend the cops aren’t there and wait for them to go away.
And you can always fall back on bribery.