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The ROK is looking at doing something similar to what U.S. politicians wants to do to the U.S. military.:

Defense Minister Suh Wook called Thursday for reforming the military’s judiciary system to reduce commanders’ influence over the investigation and trial process amid intense criticism the Air Force mishandled a sexual abuse case that led to a noncommissioned officer taking her own life.

The minister made the appeal during a parliamentary session, apologizing again for last month’s death of the master sergeant, surnamed Lee, three months after she was groped and suffered other abuse by a colleague of the same rank. 

The incident sparked public outrage following revelations that the military failed to properly protect the victim despite her repeated calls for help while instead trying to persuade her to reach a settlement with the perpetrator in a suspected attempt to cover up the case.

“In order to restore trust in the military’s judiciary system, we need to reduce commanders’ influence in the criminal procedures and carry out reform tasks as planned to guarantee independence and fairness in the investigation and trial process,” the minister said. 

In 2018, the defense ministry rolled out a series of tasks to reform the military’s judiciary system and proposed a law revision the next year. The bill is now pending at the parliament’s legislation and judiciary committee.

The proposed reform measures include transferring appeals cases to the Seoul High Court and appointing civilian legal experts as military judges to prevent commanders’ influence in trials, according to the ministry.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If this guy thought he had any chance of getting away with this, he must realize now that he is likely going to jail with the focus on the ROK military after the suicide of ROK Air Force NCO:

An Army battalion commander has come under investigation for allegedly sexually harassing three junior members of his base, officials said Thursday.

The case was belatedly known to the media amid huge public outrage over the suicide of a sexually abused female Air Force noncommissioned officer.

According to the officials, the lieutenant colonel of an Army base in Gangwon Province is suspected of forcibly having sexual contact with three female officers and making inappropriate comments repeatedly. 

As one of the victims reported the case to her division commander in mid-May, the suspect was relieved of duty, sent to another base and has come under probe by the Army Central Investigation Division, the officials said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Yoon’s popularity as a presidential hopeful continues to grow:

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl saw his support rating reach a fresh record high in the latest poll of potential presidential candidates released Thursday, amid signs of his imminent political debut.

In the Realmeter survey on 2,013 voters nationwide conducted from Monday to Tuesday, 35.1 percent picked Yoon as their most favored candidate for next year’s presidential election, up 4.6 percentage points from last month.

It is the highest support that Yoon has received in Realmeter’s monthly poll, outnumbering the previous high of 34.4 percent tallied in March.

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party (DP), came in second with 23.1 percent, losing 2.4 percentage points of support compared to last month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The ruling party was trying to siphon male voters away from their conservative opposition by promoting the conscription of women into the ROK military. However, due to the sexual assault and follow on suicide of a female ROK Air Force NCO these efforts have been sidelined for now:

The recent debate on mandatory military service for women has all but disappeared, following the suicide of a female Air Force non-commissioned officer last month after her report of a sexual assault was allegedly covered up. 

Critics say the military’s macho hierarchical culture is to blame for this and other ongoing sex crimes, many of which go unreported. 

The decades-long debate on women’s mandatory service had again been brought up by some presidential hopefuls after the April 7 by-elections, in which the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), which took the mayoral seats of the country’s two biggest cities, Seoul and Busan.

After a large percentage of men in their 20s voted for opposition party candidates seemingly being the most dissatisfied with government policies, the two major parties and their presidential hopefuls jumped into a policy competition to appeal to them. Besides improving service conditions for young men during the mandatory military service, and offering them “rewards” for serving, some came up with the idea of conscripting both men and women.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This would have been the stupidest reason ever to boycott the Olympics:

South Korea is not considering boycotting the Tokyo Olympics, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, after presidential hopefuls of the ruling Democratic Party mentioned the possibility of a boycott amid a renewed territorial spat with Japan over the East Sea islets of Dokdo.

Rep. Lee Nak-yon and former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun raised the need to mull boycotting the Games, slated to take place from July 23-Aug. 8, should Japan not revise the map of the Olympic torch relay route that included Dokdo as its territory.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.