ROK Army Colonel to Face Retrial for Assault for Slapping Soldier for Not Saluting
Since this incident apparently happened on Camp Humphreys back in 2018 it makes me wonder if this was a KATUSA soldier that was slapped?:
South Korean soldiers walk on the grounds of Camp Humphreys, South Korea, Friday, July 7, 2023. (Christopher Green/Stars and Stripes)
A former South Korean army officer cleared of assault charges after slapping a subordinate on a U.S. military base in 2018 must stand trial again after the country’s highest court reversed an appellate court’s ruling.
The officer — identified as a colonel in South Korean media reports — was convicted in a military court of assault for lightly slapping a soldier five to eight times for failing to salute, according to a June 15 decision by the Supreme Court of Korea. The conviction carried a maximum two-year prison term.
The decision sends the case to the Seoul High Court for retrial.
Both soldiers served in the same unit that supported the U.S. armed forces, according to the supreme court decision. The incident occurred at an unspecified base in Pyeongtaek, home of the U.S. Army’s Camp Humphreys and the Air Force’s Osan Air Base.
Names, ranks and other information about the soldiers were redacted in the court filing. Except in extreme cases of “cruel” crimes, South Korean law protects the identity of the accused.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but back in the day physical punishment for infractions like this was common which is probably why this Colonel thought it was okay to slap the soldier. I once did combined training with a ROK Army unit and at morning formation a ROK soldier ran to formation a few seconds late and the platoon sergeant slapped him, pushed him to the ground, and kicked him. No one ever showed up late to formation the rest of the exercise.
For administrative purposes, the ROKA puts its KATUSAs under the Eight US Army ROKA Support Group, which is usually led by a ROKA Colonel.
From the article it looks like the CO of the Support Group slapped a KATUSA serving in Pyeongtaek.
Assuming that it was a KATUSA that got slapped, I don’t know if KATUSAs are taught to salute the CO of the Support Group, but if they are and the guy didn’t salute then yes it’s on that KATUSA.
On the other hand, Colonels usually don’t go after soldiers who don’t salute them and ordinarily makes a comment to a junior officer, which goes down the line with the severity increasing as it goes down. IMO Colonels slapping soldiers for not saluting them is bad form.
Lastly, KATUSAs usually join to get away from the BS that are the hallmark of the regular ROK military and some of them are rich kids who have managed to get into top universities in Seoul.
From the looks of it the KATUSA that got slapped didn’t want to take it lying down and had the dough to drag the Colonel through court.
Who did the Colonel think he was? Patton?
I’ve personally seen ROK-A NCO’s do round house kicks to upper body/ head of ROK privates who screwed up off duty and they weren’t discreet about who witnessed it. My oh my has the ROK military declined in bad assness.
@TOK, if this was the Colonel in charge of the KATUSA’s at 8th Army it is kind of surprising. In the past I saw the ROK Sergeant Majors be the ones to level punishment on misbehaving KATUSA’s. This Colonel definitely took a big chance with his career slapping a KATUSA. I was once in a unit that the son to the Korean ambassador to France was a KATUSA in. He was a really great KATUSA though.