Half of Judgments Issued at Dawn
Eight Cases Including Forced Molestation Most Frequent
Average 304 Cases Annually Over Past 10 Years
Only Serious Crimes Transferred to Criminals
Half Result in 'No Prosecution' Due to Lack of Indictment
On the 23rd, three U.S. service members stationed in Korea were arrested by the Mapo Police Station on charges including assault, property damage, and obstruction of business in the Hongdae club district of Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. They knocked over a taxi driver and damaged one taxi side mirror. On the 16th, a U.S. service member damaged a machine at the entrance after being denied entry to a club. Earlier, in May, two U.S. soldiers were caught in the act of assaulting a Korean man near a Hongdae club. The incident began when they bumped shoulders with a Korean man inside the club, spilling their drinks and sparking a dispute. They then called the victim outside to fight and were also accused of assaulting another Korean man who tried to intervene.
All these incidents share the commonality of occurring near Hongdae clubs during early morning hours. The incident on the 23rd happened around 1:50 a.m., the one on the 16th around 6:20 a.m., and the May incident around 4 a.m. In fact, according to the precedent search service ‘BigCase,’ out of 23 court rulings on crimes committed by U.S. military personnel from 2020 to this year, 12 occurred during early morning hours.
The frequent occurrence of crimes by U.S. military personnel during early morning hours is analyzed to be due to increased off-base activities following the lifting of the U.S. military’s nighttime curfew in 2019 and the easing of COVID-19 social distancing measures.
The types of crimes are also diverse. Among the 23 rulings, sexual violence charges such as forcible molestation were the most common with 8 cases. Drug-related charges followed with 5 cases. Traffic-related crimes including drunk driving and violent crimes such as assault each accounted for 4 cases. Violations of the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles Against Sexual Abuse and violations of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act (such as filming using cameras) appeared in 2 and 1 cases respectively. According to the ‘2022 Legal Yearbook,’ the average annual number of crimes committed by U.S. military personnel over the past 10 years is 304. From 2012 to 2018, the average was 277 cases per year, but from 2019 to last year, it increased by about 100 cases to an average of 367 cases.
It is not easy for Korean authorities to bring U.S. military personnel who commit crimes to trial from the investigation stage due to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). On the 4th, a U.S. service member identified as A was caught by police on charges of hitting a passenger car while riding a motorcycle under the influence of alcohol. After fleeing the scene, he voluntarily appeared at the police station when the police, in cooperation with the U.S. military police, conducted a search operation. Following this, according to SOFA, he was handed over to the U.S. military police, and the investigation schedule was arranged in consultation with U.S. military authorities.
Such cases fall under Article 22, Paragraph 3 of the agreement, whereby Korea has primary criminal jurisdiction. This is because the incident is not related to U.S. interests and did not occur among U.S. military personnel or during official duties. For 12 major crimes (such as murder, rape, kidnapping), the U.S. military authorities must hand over the custody of the accused to Korean authorities. For other crimes, consultations between Korea and the U.S. are required.
U.S. military personnel under investigation have the right to meet and communicate with U.S. government representatives from the arrest and detention stages. If investigations proceed without the presence of U.S. government representatives, the statements made by the service members cannot be used as evidence of guilt.
Even if cases are forwarded to prosecution, many are not indicted. According to Ministry of Justice statistics, out of 313 U.S. military crime cases last year, 161 were dismissed with ‘no prosecution.’ In other words, about half of the cases forwarded to prosecution do not proceed to trial despite evidence of criminal charges. The Ministry of Justice cites reasons for ‘no prosecution’ including withdrawal of complaints in crimes requiring a victim’s complaint and the existence of comprehensive traffic accident insurance.
Park Samseong, a lawyer and chair of the U.S. Military Issues Research Committee at the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun), said, “Compared to before, the bilateral response to U.S. military crimes has improved,” but added, “There are still many ambiguous provisions in the SOFA, and the fact that decisions require bilateral consultation and agreement highlights the inherent limitations of the agreement.”
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