ROK Army Soldier Sexually Assaults US Soldier
Nomad is right, this is different:
A South Korean soldier faces trial in a military court, accused of sexually assaulting a female U.S. soldier at Camp Casey on Dec. 19, 2nd Infantry Division and Ministry of National Defense officials confirmed this week.
The soldier’s first hearing in the South Korean military court is scheduled for Feb. 2 in Dongducheon but will be closed to the public, a defense ministry spokesman said.
The 6th Infantry Division soldier has been jailed since his arrest, the spokesman said.
I can guarantee you that if the soldier is found guilty the ROK Army will punish him much more severely than the light sentences handed out to South Korean civilians who have raped US soldiers in the past. In my unit a few years back we had a senior KATUSA go to ROK Army jail for 2 months just for hazing a soldier. Worst of all for him was that his time in jail did not count against his two year ROK Army commitment. His hazing crime? He would make new KATUSAs sing patriotic Korean songs in front of the unit. Finally one new KATUSA complained and the next thing we knew the senior KATUSA was in jail. I can only imagine how long a sexual assault conviction would land a soldier in ROK Army jail, especially when you consider the ROK Army is really going to want to save face with their USFK allies.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out when you consider in 2003 a similar incident happened between a USFK a soldier sexually assaulting a KATUSA trainee at Camp Jackson:
A U.S. military court on Thursday sentenced an American soldier to 30 years in jail for sodomizing a South Korean soldier, the U.S. military said. Two other American soldiers suspected of involvement in the assault are under investigation.
Sgt. Leng Sok was court-martialed at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on charges of aggravated assault, indecent acts, sodomy, submission of a false official statement and conspiracy.
Sok “has been found guilty in all five charges,” said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the U.S. Eighth Army.
The victim’s family actually handed over jurisdiction of the case from Korean authorities, despite protests from anti-US groups, to the US military because of the light sentences given for sexual assaults in Korean courts. The convicted sergeant in this case received 30 years in jail. That’s sending a message and I expect the ROK Army will probably want to send a message as well.
Anyway as OFK points out the irony of this rape is quite evident when you consider all the righteous outrage from sectors of Korea over the US soldier who is alleged to have a raped a Korean woman a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t seen anything about this case in the Korean media yet compared to the instant headlines the US soldier made after his arrest two weeks ago. This is just the continuation of a trend of when crimes are committed against US soldiers little if any articles in the Korean media are written about it compared to instant headlines every time a US soldier commits any crime no matter how small against a Korean civilian. The soldier doesn’t even have to commit a crime, it just has to appear he did to make headlines. This is how the Myth of GI Crimes is cultivated in Korea.
GI,
How is singing a patriotic ROK song is considered hazing? Then calling cadence can also be hazing. It is very common in Korean culture for newby to sing a song for introduction. If making you singing is hazing, then just giving lawful orders might also be a hazing. Making you do more push ups in PT test might also constitute hazing. Anything can be hazing if singing is considered hazing.
He hazed the wrong kid. The kid came from a very powerful and well connected family and this came on the heels of the release of ROK Army soldier abuse pictures. The ROK Army wanted to make an example of this KATUSA that no hazing of any kind could be done to the new KATUSAs.
I didn't know the sgt in the rape case of the KATUSA was Korean….
That could explain some things.
I thought the Korean media and general population reaction to that event was somewhat muted. I had given an educated guess the reason was the sex crimes are still fairly taboo in Korean society (and the courts) and not something the society really talks about much with itself – especiall, I figured, since it was male-on-male rape. — but it was still somewhat suprising to me the anti-US groups did not get more play from the press and population on that case.
If the rapist was an ethnic Korean, however, it makes much more sense…..
I think the bigger thing was that the victim's families demanded that the US military handle the case and not the Korean authorities because of the light punishment given to sexual predators in Korea. This fact combined with the perpetrator receiving 40 years in jail quickly put out any righteous anger from the anti-US groups.
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I think the Myth of GI crimes in Korea has it’s roots from at least 25 years ago when I was stationed in Korea. Back then Korean college students were rioting nearly every day, demanding (depending on the day) for immediate pull out of USFK, or immediate reunification with their brothers in the North. The reality was the vast majority of their fervor was fomented by the professors (who were very leftist and in their minds too valuable to be tear-gassed). Fast forward 25 years, now all those students are now in positions of some power in the media and were groomed by the leftists who were already there, so in some form of Korean logic, their payback is any less than honorable actions by the US will be front page news with Korean crime hidden inside the legal notices in the classified section (I know Korean papers are not built like US papers just making my point)
Yep.