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UPDATE: Here is some more details of this incident from the Korea Times:

Four U.S. soldiers have been arrested for allegedly stealing a taxi and injuring two pedestrians here, police said Saturday. The soldiers, who were only identified as members of the U.S.’ Second Infantry Division, are accused of stealing the taxi at around 2 a.m. Saturday, police officers said.

The incident took place shortly after the U.S. soldiers allegedly physically assaulted a 19-year-old South Korean, who was only identified by his surname Lee, local cable television news channel YTN reported. After the fighting drew attention from passersby, the soldiers tried to flee the scene by flagging a taxi, the report said. However, the taxi’s 25-year-old driver, identified only by his surname Kim, refused to accept them as customers because they were intoxicated, police said.

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Here is another taxi cab related incident involving you guess it, the 2nd Infantry Division:

DONGDUCHEON, South Korea, April 15 (Yonhap) — Four U.S. soldiers have been arrested for allegedly stealing a taxi and injuring two pedestrians north of Seoul, South Korean police said Saturday.

The U.S. soldiers, who were only identified as members of the U.S.’ Second Infantry Division, are accused of stealing the taxi in the northern city of Dongducheon at around 2 a.m. Saturday morning, police officials said.

I say send them to the ROK prison in Choenan with haste:

South Korea ?Prosecutors asked Friday for sentences ranging from three to seven years in prison for the five 2nd Infantry Division soldiers accused of robbing a taxi driver on Christmas and stuffing him in his car trunk.

Pvt. Kidrem Cortez Porter, 21, was most responsible and deserves seven years in prison, said prosecutor Chu Hae-yun. Porter already has been sentenced to 1? years in prison for his role in a March 2005 robbery.

Porter is a disgrace to the uniform, hopefully the Korean courts max him out.

One of the best travel destinations in all of Korea is the beautiful Cheju-do Island located 100km south of the Korean peninsula in the Pacific Ocean. The island is filled with sites and is a perfect location for touring by car with it’s wide open landscapes and non-crowded roads. With so many great rides to choose from on the island I will begin with the easiest one. A quick and easy route to view some of the great sites on the island is by taking highway 97 south from Cheju City on the island’s north coast, all the way to the Cheju Folk Village on the south coast of the island.

Highway 97 skirts the massive Hallasan mountain thus avoiding any of the steep climbs and treacherous curves on other roads that cross the island. On a clear day you can get some great views of Hallasan to the west along with views of the multiple parasitic volcanic cones that dot the island to the east of the road. Some of these parasitic cones have pathways that allow you to climb up them if you have the time to stop.

Also along the route you will see lots of colorful flowers that Cheju is well known for along with Cheju’s famous horses. The horses are small and sturdy and are descended from when the Mongols controlled the island centuries ago. There are ranches along the route that offers rides for a fee to those inclined to try out these steeds.

The road ultimately ends on the south coast at the Cheju Folk Village. The folk village is a well designed re-creation of a traditional Cheju-do village. The people on Cheju-do have a distinctly different culture and language from main land Koreans and this village gives you some insight into those differences, not to mention some great Cheju-do cuisine. There is no better “samgeopsul” than from the black pigs of Cheju-do.

From the folk village you can either travel west on Highway 12 to Seogwipo for the night or go west on highway 12 to take you back around the i

The Korean authorities now want to talk to the anti-US hate groups and farmers that are halting the Camp Humphreys expansion project:

The South Korean Ministry of National Defense wants to open lines of communication with protesters with whom they?ve battled over contested lands outside of the U.S. Army?s Camp Humphreys.

The goal, said MND spokesman An Jung-hoon, is to persuade farmers still on the land to vacate 2,328 acres the South Korean government purchased to allow for the expansion of Humphreys. Under a plan between South Korea and the United States, the camp will triple in size in coming years and become the U.S. military?s chief installation in South Korea.

How about arresting them when they do things like this:

South Korean riot police have skirmished with the protesters several times in recent months. On Friday, MND-contracted workers poured cement into two of the three canals that bring water to the fields where the farmers want to plant rice. Several protesters were injured and several arrested during the clashes on Friday, police said.

The protesters were able to break up the cement over the weekend, MND officials confirmed, and the water was flowing again.

They assault policemen and then destroy the cement walls that the government spent thousands of dollars for private contractors to build and the government just wants to talk to them? How about talking to them in jail where the violent instigators belong? The Camp Humphreys expansion is supposed to be complete by 2008; what a joke, at this rate the government will be lucky to have the land secured by 2008.

Unfortunately the environment of a tour in Korea is a breeding ground for these types of things to happen:

The former first sergeant of a military police company here was demoted one rank after pleading guilty Wednesday to fraternization and making a false official statement, according to proceedings at his court-martial.

Master Sgt. Glen E. Gibbons was demoted to sergeant first class and must submit his resignation from the U.S. Army within 90 days, according to a plea agreement. He was the first sergeant of the 142nd Military Police Company, 94th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade.

Gibbons, who has served more than 18 years in the Army, also had faced charges of adultery with two different soldiers and one charge of cruelty and maltreatment. In that charge, he was accused of threatening to transfer a female soldier if she continued to talk about their relationship. He pleaded not guilty to those charges, the military prosecutor dismissed them and the judge accepted the plea.

A first sergeant should know way better than this:

On Wednesday, Gibbons admitted in court he let a platonic relationship with a junior female soldier grow from a mentorship into a close friendship that included giving her rides on off-duty time, letting the soldier and her boyfriend stay at his off-base home to avoid curfew violations and sharing a room with her on a group vacation to Thailand.

(…)

Gibbons said that during the time they spent together ? volunteering for a youth sports program, working out, shopping out of town and escorting her to a modeling photography shoot ? he didn?t feel he was doing anything beyond helping a younger soldier as he had been helped earlier in his career. As the rumors grew, Gibbons said he later realized there was an impact on the company.
How is taking a soldier to a modeling shoot considered mentoring? If you want to mentor her, help her practice for a promotion board or train on CTT skills, you don’t take a trip to Thailand with her. Some how I think he was doing a lot more than “helping” a young soldier out.

I have seen this type of scenario play out before where you have a senior leader who may either be recently divorced or away from his family for a year in Korea and thinks they can get away with fooling around with a younger soldier. The problem in Korea is that the soldiers live on top of each other here 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, so they gossip all the time which creates a huge rumor mill which often exposes leaders that engage in this activity. I have seen senior leaders ruin their careers just by creating the perception of a relationship even though they didn’t do anything sexually with the soldier but the perception was there which is enough to get you in trouble.

Leaders, especially a first sergeant lose all creditability when they fraternize with soldiers and the Army is serious about prosecuting these cases. This guy lost more than just his rank but also he was under two years from hitting his 20 year retirement window. Now that is all gone because he wanted to be unprofessional and fraternize with the soldiers. What makes this even worse is that the guy is an MP responsible for upholding military laws. Stupid.

It looks like my prior theory was correct, the crazy ajumma did start the fire:

A 57-year-old South Korean woman faces arson charges after confessing to investigators late last week that she started last month?s fire on a U.S. military compound next to Yongsan Garrison, according to local police.

Kweon Jung-ja told South Korean police she went through an unlocked gate onto a U.S. military compound ? which houses the Korean Service Corps ? sometime before the March 16 fire, according to Oh Sang-seok, leader of the violent crime investigation team at Yongsan-gu police station.

Oh said the woman told police she entered an open-air carpentry area on the compound, found some work gloves on a pile of lumber and lit them with a cigarette lighter.

Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t paying off ransoms only encourage more kidnappings?:

The South Korean government said Thursday it will work to bring back South Korean prisoners of war and abduction victims from North Korea even if it means paying off the communist state, but said there will be no immediate changes to its North Korea policy.

The remarks came one day after blood samples from Kim Hye-gyeong, the daughter of a Japanese citizen abducted to the North, arrived here for tests that could verify Tokyo’s claims that the daughter’s father may be a South Korean abducted by the communist state.

War souvenirs continue to be closely scrutinized coming out of Iraq:All souvenirs have to go before a reviewing officer, Lt. Col. Dwight Warren, judge advocate at Camp Anaconda, said.

?A soldier should never purchase an item without obtaining some kind of receipt showing the date, place and source of purchase,? he said.

Without a receipt, keepsakes can be confiscated by customs officials.

Navy Lt. Rory Russell, company commander of the customs office at Camp Anaconda, said he advises servicemembers not to try to sneak prohibited items out of the country.

?It will prolong your stay here and shorten your career,? he said.

How much things have changed in Iraq since I was there. I couldn’t take hardly anything out of that country when I left. There were actual US Customs Inspectors that shaked us down as we left and the only war souvenirs I could take back with me was Iraqi dinars, an Iraqi flag, and some melted scrap metal from at BTR-60 that my Bradley destroyed. Now they are selling Iraqi uniforms in the “ville” there. How much longer before they are selling mink blankets like in the Korean “ville” as well?

For those who haven’t been following the US-ROK Free Trade Agreement talks, Joshua at the Korea Liberator has a great roundup and analysis of the current status of the talks and the attempt by Korean politicians and activist groups to ride paranoia and anti-Americanism to power in Korea over the talks. Why not? It worked once before.