Tag: USFK

GI Flashbacks: The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident

| June 13, 2008

Prelude to Tragedy

On the morning of June 13th, 2002 it was just another hard day of training for the soldiers of Bravo Company, 44th Engineer Battalion, who were part of the US military’s premier combat unit in Korea, the Second Infantry Division (2ID). The 2ID is the lone US combat division stationed on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and is responsible for maintaining a credible combat deterrent to any possible North Korean aggression. A major part of maintaining a credible combat deterrent is to make sure soldiers are properly trained in both individual and collective soldier skills and that they have confidence in the equipment they use. In order to develop these skills and confidence much of a soldiers’ time while stationed in Korea is comprised of field training exercises that can last for weeks at a time.

The soldiers of Bravo Company were participating in one of the routinely scheduled brigade level exercise that are conducted to evaluate a unit’s combat readiness that is so critical to ensuring a credible combat deterrent is being kept by the Second Infantry Division. Bravo Company had been in the field for two weeks conducting continuous operations and that morning the engineers were under orders to travel to the Twin Bridges Training Area (TBTA) to link up with a mechanized infantry unit in order to participate in an expected training event there. Twin Bridges is one of the most heavily used training areas in the Second Infantry Division and most soldiers in the division are quite familiar with it. The engineers that morning prepared their equipment and began their move down Highway 56 to the training area.

accident site2
Google Earth image of convoy route to Twin Bridges from accident site.

Much like the soldiers of Bravo Company, Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun, both 13 year-old middle school students, were also beginning a typical day. They had both agreed to meet up and walk to a nearby restaurant in order to attend a friend’s birthday party being held there. As the girls were walking down the road and the engineers moved west down Highway 56, none of them had any idea that the events of this day would become one of the defining moments of the US-ROK alliance that is still causing ripple effects to this day.

 

Tragedy Strikes

Highway 56, like most of the highways in the 2ID area of operations north of Seoul, is a very narrow road with many blind corners and no shoulders. This highway is heavily used by both the American and Korean militaries to access training areas located adjacent to the highway. Bravo Company and other units had been travelling down the road all week due to the major training exercise. The engineers’ were organized themselves in a convoy with the company commander CPT Mason in a HMMWV (High Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle) leading the convoy, followed by a M113 tracked vehicle and then the five largest vehicles in the convoy, M60A1 AVLB (Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge) who were followed by another HMMWV bringing up the rear of the convoy.


The AVLB driver is on the left side of the vehicle. Notice the blind spot caused by the bridge laying aparatus.

All was fine until about 20 minutes into the movement when the convoy reached a particularly narrow portion of the highway that featured a turn that sloped up a hill. As the Bravo Company convoy travelled up the hill another convoy of M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles was moving towards the Bravo Company convoy from the other direction. The engineers would find out later that this convoy of Bradleys were in fact the very ones they were travelling to meet up with. The appearance of this convoy would ultimately lead to a perfect storm of events that would that end with deadly consequences.

The lead HMMWV with CPT Mason in it saw the Bradleys coming down the opposite lane of the highway as well as seeing two young Korean girls walking along the white line on the shoulder of the road. The actions of CPT Mason at this critical moment would come under much scrutiny later on. The commander of the M113, Staff Sergeant (SSG) Murray, was directly behind Mason’s HMMWV and he saw the on coming convoy and the two girls as well. He immediately turned around and signalled to the AVLB behind him with his arms crossed to warn the vehicle commander of the impending danger.


US soldiers recreate the scene of the accident. 

The driver of the AVLB Sergeant (SGT) Mark Walker saw the Bradleys coming down the left side of the road, but could not see the two girls walking on the right side of the road due to the shape and design of the AVLB that blocked the driver’s vision to his right. The commander of the AVLB, SGT Fernando Nino who was seated above Walker was overall responsible for directing the movement of the vehicle. He did see someone with a red shirt walking along the side of the road and tried to radio to SGT Walker to stop the vehicle. Due to the noise made by a large tracked vehicle like an AVLB, the vehicle’s driver and commander can only communicate through radio head-sets that are wired to each other in the vehicle. When SGT Nino tried to communicate his warning to Walker, there was a failure with the internal radio and Walker could not hear Nino’s warning because of cross talk on the radio[ii].


Example communications microphone system used by US military.

The AVLB has a width of 3.67 meters and the right lane of the highway they were travelling on was 3.7 meters wide. Walker moved the AVLB slightly to the right in order to give his AVLB more room between him and the on coming convoy of Bradleys. This simple reaction would become something that both men in the AVLB and everybody involved in the convoy that day would regret for the rest of their lives.

 

Reacting to Tragedy

SSG Murray sitting on top of the M113 in front of the AVLB was unfortunate enough to have a perfect view of the tragedy that had unfolded. As Walker maneuvered the AVLB to the right hand shoulder of the road he had inadvertently struck and ran over Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun who had very nearly made it to the restaurant to attend their friend’s birthday party when tragedy struck. Murray told his driver Specialist (SPC) Joshua Ray to immediately radio CPT Mason in the lead HMMWV. CPT Mason did not respond and SPC Ray increased the speed of the M113 in order to stop the lead HMMWV and report what happened to CPT Mason.

CPT Mason’s HMMWV and SSG Murray’s M113 pulled over in the parking lot of a near by restaurant. A tearful Murray told Mason what he had saw happen. Ray wanted to rush to the scene with a first aid kit, but Murray told him it was no use, he knew nothing could be done to aid the two girls.


School pictures of Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun.

As ambulances and local police arrived on the scene the busy highway became snarled with traffic and the accompanying sounds of angry motorists thinking that the road was blocked by yet another broken down army vehicle, which is not a uncommon sight in the 2ID area, instead of being the scene of a great tragedy that it was.

As the scene continued to grow a woman from the restaurant came out to see what the commotion was all about. When she found out what was happening she was shocked because her daughter had been waiting for two of her friends to come to her birthday party at the restaurant. She went back into the restaurant and the father of one of the girls then rushed out to the scene of the accident. He like everyone else at the scene was devastated by what had happened. There was no Americans or Koreans that day, just people saddened and at a loss of words at the tragedy that unfolded. It is too bad that such a unity in grief and sorrow would not last.

 

The Initial US Military Response

The day after the tragedy the commander of the Eighth United States Army at the time General Daniel Zanini, which is the higher headquarters for the Second Infantry Division, immediately apologized the day of the incident and vowed to conduct a thorough investigation in conjunction with Korean authorities of what happened[iii]. In the coming days the families of the two victims would be visited by the commander of the 2ID, Major General Russel Honore.


Former 2ID commander General Honore

General Honore would a few years later become more famously known for being the tough, talking General that commanded the military relief operation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Long before his hurricane fame, General Honore was dealing with a tragedy in Korea that may not have done the physical destruction of a Hurricane Katrina, but threatened to cause far more political destruction than even the fall out after the botched hurricane response.

General Honore apologized, accepted full responsibility for the accident, and offered the families an initial solation payment of one million won (about US $1,000) which is a normal Korean custom in response to such an accident. General Honore also vowed that an agreement would be reached according to Korean law to determine the overall sum of compensation payment to be given to the family since clearly 2ID was at fault for the accident.


2ID soldiers attend candle light vigil in memory of Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun.

Other efforts organized by 2ID in the wake of the accident, was a candle light vigil by the soldiers to express the grief of the division over the accident that was also used as a charity event to raise money for the victim’s families. The soldiers raised $22,000 from this effort that went to the families. Future fundraising drives would total another $30,000 that would be used to build a memorial in memory of the lives of the two girls[iv]. To this day I have never met a Korean yet that knows about these fundraising efforts immediately after the accident by the soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division.

 

Korean NGO’s Mobilize

For years Korean non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) have been chipping away at the fabric of the US-ROK alliance by finding issues to demagogue and then using effective media coverage to influence public perceptions about USFK. Many of the leaders of these groups were from the pro-Democracy movement of the 1980’s and many of them have spent time in South Korean jails at various times. These leaders blamed the US for the country’s tacit support of various military dictators that ruled the country in the past. It was illegal in South Korea to openly protest against the United States thus these pro-Democracy activists used the concept of creating NGO’s in order to mask their true anti-US intentions. A perfect example of this is a group named Green Korea, which was formed to advocate for environmental protection in Korea. However, the group very rarely advocates for any environmental causes outside of protesting US military camps for alleged environmental abuses.


Koreans protest outside US military base. Involving children is a common protest tactic.

These groups had been looking for a cause that they could rally the majority of the Korean general public around for years. The causes they had advocated before were effective to a degree but none of them truly mobilized the general public against USFK. This all changed on June 13, 2002. These anti-US groups could not have asked for a better issue to demagogue than the accident on Highway 56. Just days after the accident the anti-US groups were protesting outside of US military installations and demanding that the soldiers involved in the accident be tried in Korean courts.

On June 27, 2002 the anti-US activist groups waged a medium size protest of an estimated 200 people outside the Second Infantry Division headquarters at Camp Red Cloud in the city of Uijongbu. The protesters launched a well-planned assault on the camp in the hopes of creating effective propaganda images of US soldiers beating Korean civilians.

The protest organizers had set up a tent along the camp’s fence line that was supposed to serve as a place for people to sign a petition. However, the tent’s real purpose was to serve as cover for a group of activists who were at the back of the tent cutting a hole in the fence line. Once the hole was cut a pre-selected group of activists flooded through the hole and into Camp Red Cloud. The students marched through the main street of the camp chanting anti-US slogans and holding banners. They marched to the front gate where they confronted the US force protection guards there manning the gate. As the guards confronted the protesters to remove them from the camp the protesters chained themselves together to make the mass of protesters harder to move.

Additionally many of the protesters that had infiltrated into the camp were women. The anti-US group organizers had hoped to capture film of US soldiers striking over reacting and striking the protesters to remove them from the camp. The groups had cameramen positioned on rooftops of high apartments overlooking the camp and with bird’s eye views of the front gate. If any of these cameramen could get footage of a US soldier striking one of these protesters, preferably a female they would have won a massive propaganda victory for their efforts.

CRC Protest
Korean protesters through objects over the CRC fence in June 2002.

To further provoke the Camp Red Cloud guards a second group of protesters infiltrated along the heavily forested western fence line of the camp and cut another hole to enter the camp through. Now the camp’s guards faced infiltrators on two fronts. US soldiers rushed to apprehend the protesters and seal the hole in the fence line. It is at this hole that the protest turned particularly violent.

The US soldiers who responded to the hole in the western fence line used shields and baton to stop the flow of protesters into the camp. As they sealed the hole with their shields the protesters continued to try and push themselves through the shields. As they did this, another group of protesters threw rocks and chunks of concrete over the fence at the US soldiers in order to get them to raise their shields to protect themselves thus exposing their bodies to attack from the mob trying to get through the fence. Due to this violent stand off on the western fence line, nine US soldiers had to be hospitalized for serious injuries after the protest.

With the help of the Korean National Police the US force protection personnel were able to remove all the protesters from the camp without the anti-US groups winning a large propaganda victory. However, this didn’t stop the Korean media from sympathizing and sensationalizing what happened at Camp Red Cloud that day.

The Korea Times newspaper on June 27th reported:

“Two reporters affiliated with an Internet news firm have been under arrest since Wednesday evening on charges of trespassing on territory occupied by US military facilities, local police in Uijongbu said yesterday. Police officers are also examining the claims by some witnesses that the two reporters were beaten with clubs and dragged in chains as they were being taken into US military police custody.”

The “reporters” in question are in fact simply administrators of anti-US websites who helped cut down the fences and infiltrated into the camp. Notice how the Korea Times makes no mention that the protesters in fact chained themselves and instead leaves the reader to believe the US military chained and beat the people including these “reporters” who infiltrated into the camp. Unsurprisingly absent from the Korean media reporting of the Camp Red Cloud protest was that nine US soldiers had to be treated in a hospital due to injuries sustained from the anti-US protesters throwing concrete blocks at them.

The absurdity of these claims reached a crescendo when on July 8th the Korean Human Right’s Commission demanded to interrogate the US military policemen who arrested the protesters for breaking into the camp. When USFK would not turn over the military policemen the Human Rights Commission fined USFK.

However, overall these groups at the time were receiving very little media and public attention in the days after the accident because Korea was co-hosting the 2002 World Cup with Japan. The World Cup had the full attention of the Korean media and public due to the fact that the Korean team was in the midst of a stunning winning streak that ended in the World Cup semi-finals. The Korean soccer team’s amazing performance had brought nationalism in the country to an all time high that may never be surpassed. The anti-US groups may have failed to draw attention to their cause in June, but by July these groups were well prepared to capitalize on this rise in nationalism that would ultimately change the course of US-ROK relations forever.

 

Influence of the New Internet Media

In July the anti-US groups began to launch larger and more violent protests against USFK. The most heated protests were outside the two main camps of the Second Infantry Division, the largest installation, Camp Casey in Dongducheon and the division headquarters on Camp Red Cloud in Uijongbu.

In July, the anti-US groups began to launch an effective propaganda campaign on college campuses across the nation in order to swell their ranks during planned protests that month. They were able to do this through not only the common means of word of mouth and flyers, but through the use of internet message boards and text messaging as well. Korea is considered the world’s “most wired” country and internet cafes filled with youths spending hours at a time on the internet can be found in even the smallest towns. Nearly every South Korean walks around with cell phone, even children as young as seven years old can be seen walking and talking on a cell phone. Harnessing modern technology to spread the NGOs’ anti-US message would be easy the part, but creating a message that would mobilize the masses would prove to be the hard part.

US Soldier Wanted Poster
Wanted posters distributed for capture of “US killers” involved in the accident.

Simply telling the truth about what happened on that road side that fateful June morning along Highway 56 would not be enough to cause the general public to join the anti-US groups’ cause to expel USFK from Korea. Instead of the truth to mobilize the masses, the NGOs had to create a perception, and the perception they chose to create was one of a great injustice against the Korean people that everyone could identify with. The NGOs launched a propaganda campaign centered around creating an image of evil, non-apologetic American GI’s mercilessly running over two angelic school girls on their way to a birthday party and getting away with it. This image is so powerful because Koreans love their children just like any culture, but it was also equating the US military with the Japanese Imperial Army that colonized the Korean peninsula prior to the country’s liberation after World War II. Due to this sometime extremely brutal colonial period, many Koreans today still hold a very bitter grudge against the Japanese. The fact that the Eighth United States Army headquarters is based out of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, which used to be the headquarters of the old Imperial Japanese military only helped to feed this perception. It would be an easy leap of logic for someone in Korea to conclude that the Japanese had disrespected and brutalized Korea than and the US military is doing it now.

Additionally Korea is a homogeneous society that instinctively groups together against any slight made against the country by foreigners. A perfect example of this is when American late night comedian Jay Leno made a joke about how Koreans like to eat dogs. This simple joke was taken by many in Korea to be a racist attack against the nation by America and the fall out from this joke lasted for weeks with demands for apologies from the comedian[v]. The NGOs knew the attitudes of the general Korean public very well and they had a strategy to take advantage of the attitudes of their Korean audience. They had already decided on a perception they wanted to create about the accident and how they were going to spread it; the only thing they needed to do was figure out how to present this message so it seemed plausible to the general public.

The NGOs decided by spreading simple disinformation through the Internet about what happened would be the most plausible way to implement their strategy. Stories on internet message boards spread about how the American soldiers had intentionally ran over the two girls[vi]. The most famous story that made its way around all the Korean internet message boards was how the US soldiers in the convoy that day were laughing at the fact that they had ran over the two girls. The laughing so angered KATUSA (Korean Augmentee to the US Army) soldiers serving with the unit that they started a fight with the laughing soldiers. This story is not supported by any of the witnesses that were at the scene that day and additionally no one can produce the KATUSA soldiers that were allegedly involved in the fight. Despite the lack of evidence to support the claim that KATUSA soldiers fought with laughing GIs that day, it is still a common belief among many Koreans that this story is in fact true[vii].

As the misinformation spread, almost over night hundreds of websites dedicated to Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun were set up by Koreans who felt legitimate grief over what happened and demanded justice against the evil, unapologetic GIs who they felt had murdered these two girls.

 

Response of Major Korean Media Outlets

The initial response of the major Korean news outlets after the accident, had at first been marginal with newspapers publishing short articles about what happened and was largely ignored by the major television broadcasters[viii]. However, by July the major media could join the anti-US feeding frenzy that was already raging on-line because the thousands of foreign visitors and media representatives to Korea who had attended the World Cup had already departed. With the world’s attention away from Korea the major media outlets were poised to take advantage of this tragedy just like the on-line media had in the weeks right after the accident.

One of the common themes in the media was that even though the US military apologized for the accident, the apology was not “sincere”[ix]. After the accident every commanding US general in USFK issued an apology after the accident happened, the US Ambassador apologized[x], an initial solation payment was made to the family, a candle light vigil by US soldiers was held, and a fundraising drive was initiated that raised $22,000 for the girl’s families and another $30,000 for a memorial in their honor. Despite all this, the Korean media declares the US military’s response insincere. Incredibly even President Bush would later go on and apologize for the accident[xi].

Before long the misinformation being put out was not limited to internet message boards and print newspapers, but was on the average Korean’s television screen as well. The networks repeated much of what was already available on-line and is wasn’t too long before the networks produced sensational misinformation of their own making. The most infamous example of misinformation was when the major news network MBC aired footage of someone claiming to be a former Korean Army tank driver who was able to “prove” in an interview that the American soldiers in the AVLB intentionally ran over the girls and then ground guided the vehicle back over the bodies again to make sure they were dead. This interview entered into the common mythology of what happened that even to this day, much like the KATUSA story, many Koreans believe this story to be true.

The print media as well repeated much of what was on-line, but also focused repeatedly on the “one-sided” SOFA Agreement[xii]. The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and South Korea lays out the legal framework of how US soldiers handled when crimes are committed in South Korea. Under the SOFA American military personnel in Korea can be charged, tried, and imprisoned under Korean law for crimes committed off duty. For crimes committed on duty these crimes would be handled by US military authorities. Since the accident on Highway 56 happened while SGT Walker and SGT Nino were on duty they do not fall under Korean law.

The Korean newspapers focused their disinformation on claiming repeatedly that no US soldiers have ever been tried in Korean courts because of the “unfair SOFA Agreement”. The newspapers continued to hype how US soldiers were allowed to commit all these crimes against Koreans and then fly back home due to the big, bad SOFA. The facts of the matter is that US soldiers that have committed crimes while off duty have in fact been tried in Korean courts and imprisoned in Korean jails since the 1960s, yet none of this information ever made it into the Korean media. To this day there are people in Korea who think that US soldiers are tried presently in Korean courts due only to the fall out from the 2002 armoured vehicle accident, when in fact they have been tried in Korean courts for decades.

Those newspapers that were at least intellectually honest enough to distinguish between crimes committed on duty and off, tried to use a 1957 decision by the United States military to allow the prosecution of a soldier who had shot and killed a Japanese woman while on duty in Japanese courts. However, what the media would not point out is that the soldier intentionally murdered the Japanese female and was rightfully handed over to the Japanese authorities for prosecution compared to the two USFK soldiers who were involved in a traffic accident.

Such sensationalism by the Korean media over this accident really should not have been unexpected. Korean journalists do not report the news in the sense that people in West expect. Citizens from western countries expect their news outlets to serve as a check and balance on the government and big business and provide factually based news. In Korea the media often reports what the government and big business want reported as well as what British journalist Michael Breen calls, “speculation, trial balloons, rumour, and deliberate distortions”[xiii] in the name of ratings.


Signs went up around Korea banning Americans from entering into restaurants and businesses.

The sensationalism by the Korean media of the armoured vehicle accident was made quite clear when on June 29, 2002 North Korean patrol boats deliberately ambushed a South Korean Naval vessel patrolling the maritime border between the two countries. Six South Korean sailors died in the attack and the South Korean government, NGOs, and media did everything possible to minimize the deliberate murder of six South Korean sailors while continuing to sensationalize the accidental death of the two school girls[xiv]. The hypocrisy is quite stunning but when it comes to the Korean media they could care less about hypocrisy and more about ratings and sensationalism of the Highway 56 traffic accident was bringing in those ratings. There would be plenty more sensationalism to come.

The slander and accusations against USFK continued to fly both on the web and through the television networks. The tragic accident had taken on a life of its own as the major media outlets competed with the new start up internet media sites in their rush to condemn these soldiers for murder. The propaganda against USFK would become so effective that US soldiers were being assaulted and spat upon on the streets of Seoul with waiting Korean news cameramen recording it all for the nation to see[xv]. Signs went up all around Seoul refusing service to Americans in restaurants, hotels, and businesses. Massive rallies were held where demonstrators burned and tore American flags.


US soldiers kidnapped, beaten, and forced to make false statements denouncing the US government on Korean TV.

Probably the most blatant example of anti-US hate was when three US soldiers on a Seoul subway were assaulted by Korean protesters travelling to a rally on university campus. The protesters beat the soldiers and then abducted them from the subway car and began dragging them towards the anti-US demonstration. Korean policemen were able to free two of the soldiers but the third soldier was dragged into the demonstration held at the university’s sports stadium. He was threatened and forced to make coerce statements against the US by the demonstrators and make forced apologies. Despite everything that happened to them, the soldiers were charged with assault by the Korean police[xvi].

It wouldn’t be long before such irrational behaviour and actions would influence the South Korean political climate as well.

 

Politicizing the Tragedy

In the summer of 2002, Korea was in the middle of a heated presidential election that year. With the NGOs and the major media taking advantage of the accident it was only natural that the politicians running for president would do so as well. Instead of responsible leadership from the Korean government mediating between the media, the public, and USFK to stop the exploitation of this tragedy; the Korean politicians in fact encouraged it and made it even worse. None of the politicians wanted to be accused by their opponents of being a lap dog of the US, so it quickly became a political race to see who could bash the US more.


Former Korean President Roh Moo-hyun

A little known human rights lawyer, Roh Moo-hyun began to attract popular attention with his populist anti-American rants and slogans that began to strike a cord with the general Korean people. Roh who had little political experience and did not even graduate from college became a serious contender for the highest office in the country simply because he ran on a platform of being more anti-American than all the other contenders.


Example of narrow roads that remain near military training areas today.

The Korean politicians had more than just political agendas to advance with their demagoguery of the 2002 armored vehicle accident. The politicians also had to deflect blame as well.Much of the infrastructure in the northern Kyongi Province where 2ID is located had not kept up with South Korea’s rapid economic progress. Massive highways, bridges, and tunnels can be found all over South Korea to the south of Seoul however, few of these infrastructure improvements can be found in the 2ID area. Most of the roads in the 2ID are extremely small, not well maintained, and heavily used by both the American and Korean militaries as well as many civilian vehicles and pedestrians. Despite the heavy use of these roads very few of them even have a shoulder for a broken down vehicle to park on or even a sidewalk for civilians to walk on. Accidents involving the US military as well as the Korean military are not uncommon due to the conditions and do lead to fatalities[xvii].

 

The Court Martial

Probably the most significant and biggest mistake made in the handling of the 2002 armoured vehicle accident was that the USFK commanding General Leon LaPorte decided to court martial both SGT Nino and SGT Walker. Since the accident happened while the two sergeants were on duty they were not subject to Korean law due to the US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement, and thus the investigation of the accident along with any potential charges against them would be handled by the US military. All though the Korean authorities had no jurisdiction over the case, USFK had the Korean police investigate the scene with them and kept the Korean authorities and media fully briefed on what was going on. Five months after the accident the Korean National Police concurred with USFK investigators that the deaths of the two girls was an accident[xviii].

Out of the 30 nations that compose the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Korea ranked as the most dangerous place to drive[xix]. The data gathered from 2003 just one year after the armoured vehicle accident showed that Korea had 137 car accidents per 10,000 vehicles on the road. Additionally for every 100,000 people involved in a traffic accident, 15 people died. Each statistic topped the OECD’s rankings. Probably the most dubious statistic is that Korea ranked first in the OECD in traffic related child deaths. 82 children died every day in Korea with 70 percent of those accident involving children walking alongside a road[xx].


Perfect example of how a narrow road is made even more dangerous due to civilian activity.

As the statistics show, a tragic accident like what happened in June 2002 is not uncommon in Korea and the reasons for these accidents happening has nothing to do with the US military and the Korean police who helped investigate the tragedy realized this. That is why the police concluded with the USFK investigators that this was a tragic accident like many other tragic accidents involving children in Korea; the only difference was that this one involved the US military.

The NGO’s involved in the protests against USFK after the accident could care less about promoting traffic safety in Korea to prevent accidents like what happened in June 2002 from happening anywhere else in Korea. All these groups were interested in was promoting their anti-US agendas. These people have little concern about the welfare of Korean children killed every year on Korean roads and if Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun were killed by a Korean vehicle these groups would be shedding no tears and could care less.

After the results of the initial investigation were released these anti-US groups immediately started declaring it was a cover up. The claims of a cover up in Korea is very easy for the general public to believe because for decades the ruling Korean dictators had often covered up many crimes and scandals caused by the government. Even though democracy has come to Korea the old beliefs of government cover ups, especially involving USFK are easy to believe.

Korean NGOs demanded that USFK hand over the two soldiers to be tried in Korean courts despite their SOFA status. This demand was especially hypocritical considering that due to Article 2 of the Korean Military Court Act, the Korean military has jurisdiction over all crimes committed by their servicemembers whether they were off duty or not[xxi]. The fact that ROK military personnel never stand trial in Korean courts is an inconvenient fact that many Koreans would rather not acknowledge. A USFK servicemember on the other hand is subject to Korean civilian court for any crime committed while off duty. With the differences in jurisdiction between the Korean and American militaries, it makes you wonder that if the Korean civilian judicial system is not good enough for the Korean military than why should it be good enough to try American soldiers in? This is an inconvenient fact that is left unaddressed by the anti-US groups and their media allies. The hypocrisy is stunning, but like I said before hypocrisy is of little significance in Korea.


SGT Walker and his defense lawyer ambushed by the Korean media. 

Probably the most stunning hypocrisy of the SOFA criticism is the fact that the Korean military has status of forces agreements with every nation that is host to deployed South Korean military personnel. In these SOFAs, the ROK Army has primary jurisdiction of crimes committed by their soldiers both on and off duty. A couple of recent examples of when the ROK military’s SOFA was activated were both in Iraq and involved the deployment of the ROK Army’s Zaytun Division outside the Kurdish capitol city of Irbil. In the first case a South Korean soldier was playing with his rifle when an accidental discharge killed a nearby Kurdish soldier[xxii].

The SOFA was activated and the Korean soldier was handled by a ROK military court martial. In 2006 a Korean soldier driving a military truck was involved in a traffic accident where he caused the death of a 53 year old Kurdish politician. Once again the South Korean military activated their SOFA. This is what Colonel Ha Du-cheol told reporters after the accident, “The traffic accident occurred in the line of duty, so we are seeking ways to compensate the victim’s family.”[xxiii] Sound familiar? It should because it is the same thing the US military did after the 2002 armoured vehicle accident, which these groups were demanding SOFA revisions for. However, when a nearly identical situation happens with a Korean soldier it receives a small passage in the newspaper and no righteous indignation from anyone complaining about an unequal SOFA between Korea and Kurdistan.

The Korean military has never allowed one of their soldiers to be tried in a foreign host nation’s civilian courts, which shouldn’t be surprising considering that Korean soldiers do not even stand trial in civilian courts in their own country. Despite all of these inconvenient facts the anti-US groups and their media allies have the nerve to condemn USFK for an unfair status of forces agreement.

Despite the sheer hypocrisy of the demands, USFK Commander General LaPorte in an attempt to placate these groups and appease Korean public sentiment, ordered the two US soldiers court martialled for negligent homicide in the hope that if all the facts were laid out during the trial; everyone would see that USFK was not conducting a cover up. General LaPorte was new to the job and probably did not understand Korean customs very well. In Korea when a traffic accident happens that involves a fatality a solation payment is made to the family of the deceased. In accordance with Korean customs and in coordination with the Korean Justice Ministry, before the court martial was announced, USFK issued a compensation payment of $147,820 American dollars to each of the victim’s families[xxiv]. In a typical traffic accident in Korea the compensation payment and apologies would have been enough to settle the dispute.

When General LaPorte made the decision to court martial the two sergeants, it only aggravated the situation because court trials in Korea are not perceived like trials in the US are. Korea is not a “rule of law” country and is instead a “rule by law” country[xxv]. So when someone goes on trial in Korea the expectation is that the person is guilty to begin with; the trial is just a determination of how guilty the person really is. This sentiment is best expressed in a Chosun Ilbo editorial that declared: “Although we had not expected much, we had hoped that the US martial court might reach a verdict that showed a little understanding of Korean sentiment. That hope turned out to be misplaced.”[xxvi] As shown by this article what mattered most to the general Korean population was “Korean sentiment” that the soldiers were guilty, not any concerns of an open and fair trial to determine the facts of what happened that day.

 
50,000 Korean protesters tear up American flags before 2002 Korean presidential election.

By putting the two sergeants on trial General LaPorte had already declared to the general Korean public that the two sergeants were guilty. When the two sergeants were acquitted of all charges it played right into the anti-US group’s claims of a cover up. The acquittals just led to more protests, bad publicity, political demagoguery, and violence against American military personnel stationed in Korea.

 

Aftermath

Following the court martial, both SGT Walker and SGT Nino were flown back to the United States and both eventually left the Army[xxvii]. Four leaders within the engineering unit involved in the accident were disciplined by the US military. The commander CPT Mason, the first sergeant, platoon sergeant, and platoon leader all received written letters of reprimand from General Honore for not following traffic safety procedures, which effectively ended their careers[xxviii].

In a letter to the editor of the Stars & Stripes SPC Joshua Ray who was the driver of the AVLB in front of the one involved in accident stated that their commander CPT Mason has ignored safety measures by driving the large vehicle on the road where the accident happened as well as not giving soldiers in the unit enough sleep before departing on the convoy[xxix]. The points Ray brings up in the article are not unique to this engineer unit. During this timeframe 2nd Infantry Division trained heavily in the field and conducted “tactical movements” on civilian roads from one training area to the next. As Ray brings up in his article such “tactical movements” in civilian areas would never happen in the United States.

However, in the United States, military units usually do not have to travel through civilian areas to get to a training area because the training areas are often located adjacent to the military base. In Korea long convoys of both wheeled and tracked vehicles have to be conducted on civilian roads to get to training areas, with many of these roads being quite narrow and passing through small towns[xxx]. In the United States a tracked vehicle would never travel on a civilian road for any reason, in Korea it was common.


A 2001 image of one of my unit’s bradleys traveling through a densely populated Korean village.

From my own personal experience I know how dangerous these convoys can be. I have led multiple convoys of Bradleys before during my time in Korea around the timeframe and even on the very road in question that the accident happened. Korean civilians in the 2nd Infantry Division area grow up around the large military equipment and have lost respect for how dangerous the equipment can be. It was a common sight back then to see Korean civilians walking on the white line on the side of the road despite heavy armoured vehicles and tanks coming down the road behind them. They would simply continue to walk on the white line with the hands over their ears to muffle the sounds of the passing tanks.

My unit had plenty of close calls with one incident I especially remember when my Bradley was driving through the densely populated city of Pocheon and a lady talking on a cell phone walked in front of my Bradley. I yelled at my driver to stop over the intercom and fortunately he stopped in time to not hit the woman who simply looked up in surprise to see a Bradley coming at her when we were barely able to stop in time from hitting her. How she remained oblivious to a 25 ton hulk of metal driving down Highway 43 is beyond me?

Unlike the SGT Nino and SGT Walker’s AVLB, my internal communications in the Bradley worked. However, it is not uncommon for these radios to go out during a convoy. 25 tons of metal bumping around on a road has the tendency to cause things to shake things out of place. That is why my unit had an SOP of at least every minute saying something over the radio to the driver to ensure communications are still working. There was a time my internal communications went out during a convoy and I started throwing candies from the turret at the open hatch of my driver to get his attention. This was our standard operating procedure to stop because it meant our communications went out and it worked the one time we had to use it.

Pedestrians and communications failures weren’t the only danger on these convoys, impatient civilian drivers were also a source of much concern. A convoy of Bradleys on a civilian road is a long, slow movement. The convoy is usually travelling around 20 miles per hour. Civilian vehicles would try to pass our convoys on blind turns and other areas where they cannot see oncoming traffic. The most dangerous civilian vehicles were the buses because they would try and pass a Bradley and then have an on coming car coming and then the bus would then merge right sometimes forcing Bradleys on to the shoulder of the road to avoid an accident. Many of my peers and I felt that it was only a matter of time before a tragic accident happens and were actually surprised it hadn’t happened already.


Highway 56 Accident Memorial built with funds raised by the soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division.


A closer look at the memorial.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the US military was not the only ones to use tracked vehicles on these roads. The Korean Army actually used these roads much more than the US military due to their much larger force footprint in the area. I have personally seen for myself tracked Korean Army vehicles in accidents with civilian vehicles[xxxi]. The dangers of driving on Korean roads in the 2ID area of operations was danger faced by both militaries.

To make matters worse is that many of these roads with heavy civilian traffic and pedestrians in the 2ID area are small and narrow and should not have tracked vehicles on them in the first place. The stretch of road on Highway 56 where the accident occurred is a perfect example of one of these poorly built roads, because there was no shoulder or sidewalk for the girls to walk on to avoid traffic. It is clear that USFK bears responsibility for what happened that day, but the US military shouldn’t be the only ones held accountable for what happened that day.

With such poor road conditions in the 2ID area that were posing a risk to civilians, why had the Korean government not done anything to expand the roads or even add sidewalks along roads with heavy military traffic? This is a question Korean politicians do not want to answer. A simple sidewalk along that road would have saved those two girls lives that day. Because of this fact it was in the interest of the Korean government to deflect any responsibility for what happened solely on the US military.


Site of the accident today. Notice how the government has since widened the road and added a sidewalk.

Also since the accident the Korean government has quietly begun expanding roads and adding sidewalks in the 2ID area in order to prevent future accidents. However, this is all too little to late for Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun. These two girls tragically became the victims of something that could have been easily prevented. If Korean societal attitudes were different (pedestrians not giving way for military vehicles), if the Korean government expanded roads and sidewalks, if the breakdown in basic safety measures within the unit did not happen, and finally if the internal communications systems of the AVLB worked properly these two girls would be alive today. It is a shame that everyone involved with this accident will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

Another shame from the aftermath of the tragedy is the wilful demagoguery and manipulation of this accident by Korean NGOs and politicians to advance their own agendas. The US military had sacrificed over 37,000 lives during the Korean War and had been helping maintain security on the Korean peninsula for over 50 years which was directly responsible for setting conditions for the economic miracle that took place in Korea. Despite all the US military has done for the Republic of Korea, not one person in the Korean government had the moral courage to mediate what happened and instead they all competed to see who can demagogue the accident the most for their own domestic political purposes. With his anti-US platform and the aid of the media, Roh Moo-hyun would prove he was the biggest demagogue of them all, by going on to win a narrow victory in the 2002 presidential election[xxxii]. Incredibly the aftermath of the June 2002 armoured vehicle accident had been enough to elect a political nobody to the presidency of South Korea.

 

Note: I am trying to make this posting as accurate as possible a depiction of what really happened on June 13, 2002 in order to disspell the number of Internet rumors and urban myths surrounding this accident. If you were a member of the unit involved in the accident please leave a comment to further clarify exactly what happened that day. Likewise if people have any more information about the Korean and USFK reactions to the accident please feel free to leave a comment as well. Please save any comments for USFK recommendations for the upcoming posting. Thanks.

References

Joshua Ray, Korean Mediator, http://koreanmediator.blogspot.com/2005/10/june-13-2002-my-personal-account-of.html, accessed 10 July 2007

Joshua Ray was a member of the unit involved in the accident and he recounts the convoy and what happened that day on both his blog and a follow up Stars & Stripes article he wrote.

[ii] Jeon Ick-jin, “Radio Blamed for Accident”, Joong Ang Ilbo, 06 August 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1906943

[iii] “Lee Ho-jeong, “US Vehicle Kills Two Korean Teens”, Joong Ang Ilbo newspaper, 14 June 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1904883

[iv] “USFK Statement on Highway 56 Accident”, US Embassy Korea press release, 27 July 2002, http://seoul.usembassy.gov/july_27_2002.html

[v] Donald Kirk, “America on Thin Ice In Korea”, International Herald Tribune, 01 March 2002, http://www.iht.com/articles/2002/03/01/t1_2.php

[vi] Jennifer Veale, “Just the Facts”, Foreign Policy, January/February 2007, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3737&page=2

[vii] “USFK Statement on Highway 56 Accident”, US Embassy Korea press release, 27 July 2002, http://seoul.usembassy.gov/july_27_2002.html

[viii] “Lee Ho-jeong, “US Vehicle Kills Two Korean Teens”, Joong Ang Ilbo newspaper, 14 June 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1904883

[ix] “Clear Up US Army Tragedy”, Joong Ang Ilbo, 04 July 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1905664

[x] Lee Chul-jae, “US Ambassador Apologizes for Deaths of Girls in June Accident”, Joong Ang Ilbo, 30 July 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1906700

[xi] Min Seong-jae, “US Envoy Extends Apology from Bush”, Joong Ang Ilbo, 28 November 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1911685

[xii] “Clear Up US Army Tragedy”, Joong Ang Ilbo, 04 July 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1905664

[xiii] Michael Breen, The Koreans, (New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2004), Chapter 1 The Three Miracles

[xiv] “West Sea Battle Survivors Struggle to Build Future”, Chosun Ilbo, 28 June 2006, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200606/200606280025.html

[xv] Jeremy Kirk, “Two US Soldiers Shoved, Spat On at Seoul Station”, Stars & Stripes, 21 December 2002, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=11652&archive=true

[xvi] “Statement on Three Soldiers’, US Embassy Korea Press Release, 18 September 2002, http://seoul.usembassy.gov/september_18_2002.html

[xvii] “Two Dead as Tank Falls from Rural Bridge”, Joong Ang Ilbo newspaper, 18 February 2003, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1936133

[xviii] David Scofield, “The Mortician’s Tale”, Asia Times, 28 January 2004, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FA28Dg02.html

[xix] Hwang Hae-rym & T.D. Flack, “Korea Plans Drive for Safer Roads”, Stars & Stripes, January 18, 2006, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=33528&archive=true

[xx] David Steinberg, Korean Attitudes Toward the United States (M.E. Sharpe, 2005), pg 206

[xxi] “USFK Statement on Highway 56 Accident”, US Embassy Korea press release, 27 July 2002, http://seoul.usembassy.gov/july_27_2002.html

[xxii] “Korean Soldier Accidentally Killed Iraqi”, Chosun Ilbo, 13 April 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504130032.html

[xxiii] Jung Sung-ki, “Kurd Official Killed in Traffic in Erbil”, The Korea Times, 02 February 2006, http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2006/2/kurdlocal98.htm

[xxiv] “South Korea Decides Compensation Sum for Girls Killed by US Armored Vehicle”, People’s Daily, 20 July 2002, http://english.people.com.cn/200207/20/eng20020720_100059.shtml

[xxv] Franklin Fischer, “Lawyer: Americans Can Expect Fair Trial In Korea”, Stars & Stripes, 15 April 2007, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52677&archive=true

[xxvi] “Not Guilty Verdict”, Chosun Ilbo newspaper, 22 November 2002, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200211/200211210035.html

[xxvii] Teri Weaver, “Three Years Later, Walker Still Haunted By Deaths of Two Korean Girls”, Stars & Stripes, 01 May 2005, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27977&archive=true

[xxviii] Jeon Ik-jin & Park Hyun-young, Army Reprimanded Four After Accident that Killed Two Teenagers”, Joong Ang Ilbo, 16 December 2002, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1912434

[xxix] Joshua Ray, “Higher Ups Put Safety Second”, Stars & Stripes, 22 November 2002, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=14274&archive=true

[xxx] Jeremy Kirk & Choe Song-won, “As Exercise at the DMZ Begins, Area Residents Say Relations with the US Are Better”, Stars & Stripes, 02 October 2003, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=17194&archive=true

[xxxi] “Two Dead as Tank Falls from Rural Bridge”, Joong Ang Ilbo newspaper, 18 February 2003, http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=1936133

[xxxii] Jennifer Veale, “Seoul Searching”, Foreign Policy, January/February 2007, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3669

Comments

[…] Your page is on StumbleUpon […]

Rechecked my history page of these events from back in 2002 at http://kalaniosullivan.com/KunsanAB/8thFW/Howitwa… and saw how the same characters have popped up again in the latest beef issue.

Lee Hoi-chang and Roh Moo-hyun were promising to renegotiate the SOFA if elected. Only now Lee Hoi-chang of the LFP has helped bring the National Assembly to a standstill — and Roh is making commentary on the Candlelight vigils and LMBs problems from the sidelines. Our favorite radical priest Fr. Moon moved from Kunsan to Seoul to head up the anti-hate movement in 2002…but now is too weak after his last ditch fight at Daechu-ri in Pyeongtaek. The cast of other anti-American activists have all shown up at the latest Candlelight vigils.

Things haven’t changed that much. I just hope the teeny-bopper Korean kids with their signs of “F_CK USA” back then have now matured into reasonable college kids of today and don’t bring up all that vomit from the past.

The photos of the masses of people filling Seoul Plaza up to Dec 2002 look the same as the latest Candlelight vigil. I wonder how many of those folks from back then want to relive the wonderful days of hating Americans. I hope not many.

What a vile experience it would be to live through it all over again…

I don’t think the beef issue will match the 2002 hatefest but I do expect the anti-US elements behind the beef protests to try and mobilize these people to take up their anti-USFK causes such as with the funding or pollution issues in the coming months.

God forbid if another traffic accident should happen in the coming months as well because the anti-US groups will jump all over it just like they did in 2002.

The beef protests is just the prelude to get the masses riled up in order to mobilize them to take on the anti-US groups real agenda which is bashing USFK.

[…] clearly-discernible facts for what it was. THE POINT OF THIS POST Yet, I suggest that you read this very concise and useful post from the ROKDrop, with which I concur on the major factual matters of the case, because I did a lot of research of […]

I am looking forward to the next posting’s list of lessons learned.

Somehow, I seriously doubt that any lessons learned would be institutionalized by the Korean government, media, NGOs, and population. They all would do the exact same thing again.

[…] and I never use that term lightly. Y’all need to make some time and read GI Korea’s post “GI Myths: The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident.” He recaps in great detail the events surrounding the deaths of two middle school girls six years […]

[…] ends. Required reading for all ex-pats, particularly Americans. Brian in Jeollanam-do’s entry GI Korea’s entry The Metropolitician’s […]

You covered everything with this post and absolutely nailed the hipocrisy of it all!

Just sickens me how so many Koreans will believe the most absurd anti-American propaganda lies:

In 2002, I had some of my university students (and this is a good university) swear that it was totally true that the vehicle drivers “laughed and celebrated their kill” and the backed up and ran over the girls again for fun.

I was absolutely stunned that someone could believe something so absurd and implausible.

I asked where they got that information and the answers were either “I read it on the Internet” or “My senior told me”.

I tell you, it’s scary how well the anti-American propaganda groups know how to manipulate their audience and get them to believe all the lies without question.

They’re accomplishing so much with the anti-beef thing- very cleverly disguising it as anti-Lee Myung Bak and a “health concern”.

Why can’t the Lee government, the American interests, and the pro-American groups understand how to really get the truth to the people and help them to believe it?

Or, at least properly let the people know they are being lied to and manipulated?

Seems we are fighting a losing battle against the anti-American groups who have the majority of the Korean public and a few Quislings wrapped around their finger!

Must Read: GI Korea on The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident…

GI Korea has an excellent and lengthy post on the background, events, and aftermath of the 2002 accident where a U.S. armored vehicle killed to schoolgirls. I arrived in Korea a few days after the accident, but things didn’t start to heat up unti…

When I heard about this tragic news of two teenaged girls, I saw it on Korean-American news in California. I am Korean myself so I know bits of current events going on in Korea when my mom watches news every night.

When I saw this news, I thought it was just tragic and sad. Then I went on my merry ways at high school. What I didn’t realize that this tragedy had turned into political mass campaign of anti-American sentiment there. I learned about it just now and I began to wonder why my mom failed to tell me that it was going on.

The act of hatred toward a country is very brutal and evil because they turn the individual’s responsibility into nation’s but Korea is not the only country that have done that. (Examples would be prior and during WWI & WWII, Red Scare) But considering today is today even back then was fairly modern and Korea is “democratic”, I am really ashamed.

I’m not apologizing for Korea because I, myself, was a victim of its racial discrimination (I don’t look like a typical Korean which is why I was mistreated while living in Korea).

I also didn’t know how Korea reacted to Virgina Tech tragedy. Again, I didn’t really pay attention (but I do now, thanks to beef issue). When I read about it, I was touched that Korea was showing its condolences but when I knew its intention, I was upset.

Thanks for writing about it. It really opened my eyes how strong the nationalism that Korea now have. America doesn’t even show its nationalism as strongly as several decades ago. When it does, it’s about troops overseas with concerns and hope.

I want to talk with Korean students on my campus (Upstate New York) and ask them how they feel about it. I wonder if they share the same sentiment after living here for few years. But there aren’t many Koreans around here during the summer…

Annie, Koreans hate the USA. That is why the USA should never let such a people in her boarders. I would put all Koreans in camps if it was up to me.

Hanbokcho,

I don’t appreciate the way you reply. It’s very immature and insensitive comment. Please think before you say anything.

[…] copious evidence gathered by GI Korea in his comprehensive post on the accident shows that this is a […]

Great post, and a important record of that history.

As you pointed out, it was US soldiers honoring the memories of Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun who introduced Koreans to candlelight vigils, which was not mentioned in a Korean Herald article HERE, which credited the idea for candlelight vigils to some anonymous Korean “netizen”.

[…] have taken.  Anyway, the article you really ought to read is from the blogger GI Korea: “GI Myths:The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident.”  I also recommend checking out the information on USinKorea.org, as well as a small […]

[…] it is absolutely disgusting what these groups are doing once again demagouging and hijacking the memories of Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun for their own partisan political purposes. Then again these are the same people that would […]

[…] are plenty of lessons to be learned from the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident from all sides of this issue to include the Korean public, government, and media, but I am going to […]

[…] deaths of two girls who were run over by a U.S. Armoured vehicle near an army base north of Seoul. ROK Drop has a really amazingly excellent write-up on what happens when misinformation, lack of crit…(re: that 2002 armoured car incident) that shows just how far you can go on anti-american emotion […]

[…] to paralyze or seize the reigns of national power.  The reaction to the 2002 traffic accident certainly seemed irrational enough (must-read link), but two girls did die; the tragedy was at least real.  This year, lacking a […]

[…] a great blog for US Forces in Korea, recently did a fantastic job of uncovering the facts of the case. Koreans still believe a lot of the lies surrounding this incident and it is an emotional issue for […]

[…] girls run over by a US military vehicle on June 13, 2002 (for more background on the incident, this post at ROK Drop is well worth reading, and the Metropolitician offers his analysis of those that used […]

[…] the report done last week by the blogger “ROK Drop” on the incident and the aftermath: http://rokdrop.com/2008/06/13/gi-myt…icle-accident/ Reading that put me in the state of mind to write this latest KT piece. While I know Koreans will […]

[…] It will be interesting to see if Brian Deutsch the K-blogger who raised the ire of Korean netizens due to his objection to the Crazy Cow Madness, with his latest article in the Korea Times taking a stab at the myth making of the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident. […]

I think that maybe sometimes Korean civilian courts are too lenient. For example, there was a U.S. soldier in his early 20’s who raped and beat an elderly Korean woman, but he only got something like 3-4 years in prison (he was tried by an ROK civilian court, as he was off duty at the time).

That said however, it is despicable how some South Koreans are dishonouring the memory of the two schoolgirls by trying to pursue an anti-American agenda at any cost. Of course, Korea activated its own SOFA with Kurdistan in Iraq, when an ROK soldier accidentally killed a 53-year-old politician in a traffic accident. Why were there virtually no articles or comments in the Korean press about that? Aren’t Kurdish people important?

A well-written post from a GI’s point of view, although I, as a Korean citizen, have to disagree with you on several points which I would rather not elaborate. BTW I agree with you that it was a very unfortunate “accident” and some of Korean NGOs grossly distorted the truth. But it also has to be true that somebody in that convoy made a fatal mistake (or a few mistakes) and got away. I believe it’s what angered most Koreans, because there had long been a perception in Korea (which may partly be true) that Americans can do whatever in Korea and get away with it.

A few factual errors: ex-president Roh was from Gyeongsang province, not Cholla. Maybe you were mistaken because Cholla province is his party’s stronghold. And he was not a little-known lawyer at that time, he had been a widely respected politician (a rarity in Korea). You may also be surprised that he refused to participate in the anti-US rally, saying that it would be imprudent for a presidential candidate to do so. All the other major presidential candidate did participate, including the leading conservative candidate Lee Hoi-chang. That he was elected in the midst of anti-americanism does not mean he was anti-american; it just is not logical.

Korean court martial sentence is generally harsher, that’s why Korean soldiers are not allowed to be tried in civilian courts. Not because of hypocrisy.

[…] it is absolutely disgusting what these groups are doing once again demagouging and hijacking the memories of Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun for their own partisan political purposes. Then again these are the same people that would […]

torreypines thanks for commenting and let me answer some of your points.

The perception that GIs can do whatever they want and get away with it in Korea is false as I have shown over and over again:

http://rokdrop.com/2008/04/22/south-korean-percep…

http://rokdrop.com/2008/02/27/gi-myths-is-the-us-…

http://rokdrop.com/2008/02/22/gi-myths-the-unfair…

However the perception held by GIs that Koreans can commit crimes against them and get away with it is actually based on reality:

http://rokdrop.com/2008/06/24/another-classic-exa…

As far as Roh yes point taken and correction made he was not from Cholla but his base of support was there. As far as Roh being anti-American the fact that he played up how he wouldn’t “kowtow to the Americans” or how he had never traveled to America and my all time favorite “is going anti-American a big deal?” all are pretty indicative of him trying to shore up the anti-American vote.

The fact that Korean soldiers are not tried in civilian courts is hypocritical if Korean citizens do not want to hold their own soldiers to the standards they expect of USFK. Also using your logic that Korean court martials are harsher then civilian courts that means that all US soldiers should be tried in court martials as well since they are harsher then Korean civilian courts.

Case in point in 2003 when a KATUSA was sexually assaulted at Camp Jackson. Since the crime happened off duty Korean courts had jurisdiction however the family of the KATUSA wanted the US to court martial him because they knew the punishment would be greater. They US soldier was sentenced to 30 years in jail. Such a sentence would have never been handed down in a Korean court.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/27/world/m…

Compare this to a ROK Army court martial that did not send a ROK Army soldier to jail for sexually assaulting a female US Army soldier on Camp Casey:

http://rokdrop.com/2007/02/16/rok-army-sexual-ass…

Well at least the ROK Army court martial put the soldier on probation unlike the Korean court who let a cab driver who raped a US Army soldier go:

http://rokdrop.com/2006/07/16/philippina-woman-ra…

As far as the accident you need to provide specific criticisms in order to properly respond because CID investigated the unit and no criminal intent was found on the leaders of the unit and the charges brought against the two soldiers in the vehicle were politically motivated as I have shown. Also as I have shown safety infraction violations led the unit leadership to all be reprimanded and their careers ended.

Also as a Korean you should know full well how traffic accidents are handled in Korea. As long as the person shows proper remorse and pays the blood money that the family accepts they don’t have a lynch mob coming after them like what the two soldiers involved in this tragic accident had coming after them.

Interesting report, how our vaulted left wing media didn’t run this into the ground is beyond belief.

My heart goes out to the familys of those 2 girls.

To the commander of that movement, he should of had a lead vechile out there to watch out for traffic and pedestrians. That’s the guy who should be punished.

The commander was in a HMMWV leading the convoy. Also remember the girls were hit by the fourth vehicle in the convoy which shows they knew they were standing in the midst of a military convoy and continued to walk on the road any way.

Soldiers in the convoy including the TC of the vehicle of that hit the girls saw them but the radio issue prevented the driver from being aware that they were walking on the road.

The fact that civilians walk on the road and do not move is not unusual in the 2ID area because the people are so used to the ROK and US military equipment and have thus lost respect for how dangerous the equipment can be. Likewise many military units got used to the civilians as well and slacked on safety procedures like this unit did by having tired drivers and no proper convoy rehearsal. I would also like to reemphasize that the commander and the other leaders in the unit were punished with General reprimands which are career killers.

It was a tragic accident that was preventable from many angles, but in no way was it worthy of the xenophobic hate that followed it.

“The most infamous example of misinformation was when the major news network MBC aired footage of someone claiming to be a former Korean Army tank driver …”

Was this “PD Notebook”? I cannot be 100% sure and the page from where that video is sourced doesn’t say what program it was from. I seem to recall kimsoft had it on his site, but no more. Can anyone confirm the name of the program? (If the owner of this site knows, could you email me at the address provided please?)

[…] Oh has been behind anti-US-ROK FTA protests as well as anti-US protests in 2002 in regards to the USFK armored vehicle accident.  He was also involved in protests to shut down the USFK bombing range at Maehyang-ri in […]

That’s not a picture of Walker and Nino at their court-martial. They were tried separately, and acquitted separately. That’s a picture of Walker’s military defense counsel, with Walker behind him. They are at the Uijongbu courthouse, months before the court-martial.

We were supposed to meet with Korean prosecutors as a bona-fide SOFA/international law requirement that the defendants be made “available” for questioning. It ended up being a set-up: Korean prosecutors never met with us, the Korean press “infiltrated” the courthouse (when someone opened the front door and led them to us), and our U.S. security detail got us out of there in a hurry.

I know because I was Walker’s military defense counsel. I’m holding up my black University of Akron Law binder in that picture. I still own it.

Jag D, thanks for commenting and clarifying the picture. Is there anything else in the posting that needs additional clarification because I am trying to make this posting as accurate as possible in regards to what happened.

Your posting is excellent, thank you for providing it. Your sources are spot-on, and your opinions are very accurate. Only other thing I would add is there were no photographers or reporters allowed in or around the courtroom at Camp Casey, except for one from Stars and Stripes I believe (T.D. Flack).

That is because the entire trial was televised closed-circuit to a Korean VIP/family/press room located a few buildings away, complete with translator services, all paid for by (who else?) the USG. Everyone in that VIP room seemed fine with the arrangements and the proceedings themselves until the consecutive not guilty verdicts were returned. Then of course the cries of kangaroo court, bad SOFA, etc. etc. began anew.

[…] I think the most disgusting example of the political nature of these protests is when the anti-US groups set up a memorial tent outside City Hall in Seoul that has blatantly linked the US beef protests with the 2002 USFK armored vehicle accident: […]

[…] as a reminder that military driver’s safety is not something that came about because of the 2002 armored vehicle accident but in fact something that has been emphasized for […]

Totally disagree with you korean bashers here. The driver of the military vehicle that KILLED Ms. Shin and Ms. Shim was a professionally trained driver of that vehicle. If he wasn’t then why was he driving it?? While he may not have intentionally killed these young ladies, he did, in fact, kill them. Therefore he is at fault and should have received a korean prison sentence. If you drive an automobile and you hit someone and kill them, because you are considered a professional driver because you have a driver’s license, you will face a prison sentence – seen it done in another province. So don’t try to shift blame onto Ms. Shin and Ms. Shim, the solder was at fault! BTW: Ms. Shin is a distant cousin of my family’s so I do take this very personally when you bash her.

Idiot, nobody is bashing Ms. Shin.

Koreans involved in fatal car accidents are not automatically thrown in jail.

For people like me, it isn’t “Korea-bashing” it is Korea’s anti-US culture bashing.

In another thread, you pull out many of the shallow Korea-defending arguments – like – It’s their country, you are guests, blah blah blah.

And now this claim that people attacking the orgy of hate South Korean society put on in the 2nd half of 2002 are bashing the poor girls who died.

Just to second what USinKorea said, Huh? is using the same old, tired arguments.

In just the last two years there were two GIs killed by taxi cab drivers and those drivers were never sent to jail for killing the GIs. The second incident was an accident but the first innocent was definitely shady with the cab driver committing a hit and run.

http://rokdrop.com/2007/05/08/naked-usfk-soldier-…

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&ar…

Here is what the cab driver was charged with after the accident:

South Korean police identified the soldier as Shannon Chalfant, according to Sgt. Chang Won-il of the Yangju police accident investigation division.

The car’s driver, Maeng Chang-je, 50, was not injured, according to Chang.

Under South Korean law, Maeng could face a fine of 40,000 won, about $40, for hitting a pedestrian, according to South Korean police.

It will be interesting to hear Huh?’s rationale when Koreans are responsible for killing GI’s in traffic accidents and are only charged a $40 fine.

I’m not even an American, but, because I’m visibly foreign, I experienced some of that anti-American (and later generally anti-Western, anti-foreigner) horsesh** as well.

I understand that in 2006 (correct me if I’m wrong), a Korean soldier accidentally ran over a Kurdish man in Iraq and killed him. The Korean army then activated its own SOFA they had with Kurdistan, so that the soldier wouldn’t be tried in a Kurdish court.

I also understand that Korean soldiers in the ROK are never tried in civilian courts for crimes they may commit, whether they’re on duty or off.

Finally, weren’t there a number of South Korean sailors who were deliberately killed by North Korean forces at about the same time in 2002? Not to mention the many young Koreans killed in traffic accidents by their fellow countrymen that year…yet, because U.S. troops were involved in that one particular, accidental tragedy, the xenophobic fit hit the shan.

Last Question first: http://www.usinkorea.org/issues/seabattle/index.h…

Traffic Accidents in Korea: http://usinkorea.org/issues/trafficaccidents/inde…

On the ROK soldier, I remember hearing something like that. The one that comes to mind more is of an ROK soldier who accidently shot a Kurd, I think it was, by being careless with his rifle.

The story on how ROK soldier crimes are handled I like best is one in the late 1990s when a guy robbed a bank with a machine gun and stun grenade. He wounded at least one person with the gun. That is highly unusual in Korea. It was a shocker. When they caught the guy several days later and heard he was a soldier – it was stunning but then the news accounts dried up. —- He was handled in Korean military court – even though the bank was off base and civilian.

In the water dumping case this guy also commented on on another thread, a month or two after that case, a Korean logging company was finally dragged into court and fined for having pumped, was it thousands??, of gallons of fromaldehyde into the Han River directly – well, through run-off due to how close to the river they were treating the wood.

That case got a fine after the practice had been ongoing. But, the USFK case gets months of protests and an ever-lasting story/justification.

Good boy “Huh” keep up the good work showing the Korean/ Kyopo mindset.

Sheesh!!! Has anybody ever heard of the “Darwin awards”

Everyone can read about US-ROK SOFA as well as the SOFA’s Korea has signed with other countries to include the Kurdish incident and the ROK soldiers who held up the bank at the below link:

http://rokdrop.com/2008/02/22/gi-myths-the-unfair…

[…] a soldier committing a crime and getting away with it because of the SOFA, they always bring up the 2002 Armoured Vehicle Accident as evidence. I always appreciate them bring up that tragic accident because it is so easy to […]

[…] Ruin Everything Popular Gusts “Protests, public space in Seoul, and cyberspace” ROK Drop – GI Myths – The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident Samedi: Korean Temples Series Gord Sellar, Roboseyo, The Korean, et. al.: Why Do Expats Complain So […]

[…] Ruin Everything Popular Gusts “Protests, public space in Seoul, and cyberspace” ROK Drop – GI Myths – The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident Samedi: Korean Temples Series Gord Sellar, Roboseyo, The Korean, et. al.: Why Do Expats Complain So […]

Is this post available in Korean? A Korean co-worker mentioned this accident to me at lunch this week, claiming that there was no apology. I told her she was misinformed, and sent her a link to this post. Her English is pretty good, but if this is available in Korean, I’d like to send her that as well. And if it isn’t available in Korean, I think this and all of your “GI myth” posts should be translated. I think there are many fair-minded Koreans out there who simply have never been told the truth. Maybe the “Korea Beat” guys could do it?

I have had offers to have the posting translated for my site but I do not have the Korean language skills to answer comments that may begin to come in from Korean commenters to answer questions and criticisms of the posting.

If someone wanted to post it in Korean on their site to where they could respond intelligently to questions from Korean commenters I would be all for it.

I will be showing this to my Korean girlfriend today, along with some of your other postings. She is under the impression that U.S. military personnel are never brought to trial in Korean courts and that there are no U.S. military personnel in Korean jails. Her evidence is “everybody says so”.

Oh, and she brought up this incident (the 2002 death of these schoolgirls) as evidence that GIs are never brought to justice. She claims that they were sent back to the U.S. to avoid prosecution in the Korean court system. I asked for her evidence…”well everybody says it’s true…”

#50,#51,

I haven’t been in Korea teaching Korean adults since 2000, but that was what everybody knew as the truth back then.

Even after a couple of major cases came up in the late 1990s, and we had gone over news articles that showed the GIs were tried and convicted in a Korean court, some of my long-term students would still end up saying some weeks later that “no” GIs are ever held to Korean justice.

This link http://usinkorea.org/crimes/12_22_1967.JPG is to a scan of an article on the first GIs to be convicted and sentenced by Korean courts: it was in 1967.

GI Korea has a lot of great information about contemporary cases. I’ve also got up some older cases that I was able to locate in the US news archives:

http://www.usinkorea.org/crimes/

Video of the protesters who cut the hole in the fence at Camp Red Cloud:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9hmNV4LojQ

[…] Korea has a detailed post clarifying misinformation surrounding the 2002 accident and its […]

Just wanted to add. Since that accident, every soldier that comes to Korea is briefed on the accident as part of the inprocessing procedure. The soldiers are taken to the site of the accident and briefed the 5Ws (and How). Also, no longer are tracked vehicles allowed to move during the day time, and I would say that 95% of tracked convoys are moved by Heavy Equipment Truck Transport run by the Korean Service Corps. So very rarely are trackes even on the ground anymore.

Was doing some fact checking today on the incident I was part of nearly 8 years ago today. Great blog post that tackles the topic from the angle I typically view the events and the aftermath from. I may be reading wrong, but one part of your article seemed to suggest that our unit (B Co, 44th Engineer Bn) left a staging area to go TO Twin Bridges.

In fact, we were staged on the outskirts of the training area awaiting Bradleys to reach us so that we could continue into the training area. Instead, CPT Mason informed us that we would leave the training area and travel a few miles down the road to the Bradleys, THEN travel back over the same road back to our staging area. We would effectively be traveling miles over the same small road twice, when we only needed to wait in place.

I personally mentioned something to CPT Mason about it during staging. So did my squad leader. I can’t quote him directly due to years of separation from the conversation, but he said something very very close to “it’s my company and I’ll do what I want”.

I was interviewed by PD Notebook in 2005 (2006?) about the incident while in Korean language school in Monterey, CA, and have been trying to get a copy of that show since then. I am very worried that they did not represent my words correctly, since Korean media has been very spotty as you have addressed well in this blog.

Currently I am back in school continuing toward my goal of intelligence/PR work in Korea while working full time for the government. I have matured since then, but there is still a lot to learn. In those days, I had a very small piece of the responsibility. That being said, I still feel three things very strongly:

1) Korean media did a great disservice to both U.S. servicemembers and the Korean people.

2) CPT Mason made a horrendously poor decision that was indicative of his and 1SG Williams’ leadership at the time.

3) I still feel like I owe a debt to the families of Shim Mi Son and Shin Hyo Soon that I am trying to repay further down the road by continuing my studies of Korean history and culture.

I am subscribing to this comment thread and would enjoy chatting with you about Korea.

Sgt. Chalfant’s still alive and in therapy as of Feb. 2009:

http://www.stripes.com/news/unit-pitches-in-to-he…

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1448501/…

heard from my korean coworker today about this event. we joke sometimes about how koreans get offended when any foreigners ‘diss’ korea. today it came up at lunch and she asked how i would feel if someone insulted the US. i told her many americans hate the US, so i people’s negative opinions don’t bother me.

she’s pretty fair about discussing cultural issues, so i was surprised at how somber she got later in the afternoon when explaining america’s injustice toward korea in the armored vehicle incident. i’m glad there is some thorough, fact-grounded information in this post to help me process her expression of korea’s disdain toward the US. i’ve heard so much about japan’s atrocities since being here (and about the dokdo conflict, etc), and have therefore come to somewhat resent korea’s ‘everyone says so’ mentality.

thank you for working to bring this incident into a new light…i do hope the tolerance and investigatory skills of korean society soon catch up to their amazing technological and economical development.

For all your citations, you got the Girard situation completely wrong (the US military who killed a Japanese woman). You say he “deliberately” killed her but that’s not what he was sentenced for, he was sentenced to 3 years for causing her death. Also strictly speaking the US shouldn’t have handed him over as he was on duty while the incident happened – in the end, mounting Japanese antagonism made sure he was handed over, which was widely protested in the states at the time.

So the Korean media def. had a point when they mentioned this case. You got it all wrong.

Marcus, here’s a link from Time magazine, 1957. The Girard case involved a soldier actually firing an empty cartridge from a GRENADE LAUNCHER — AT a group of Japanese scavengers. The cartridge stuck and killed a woman.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,…

The Sec Def at the time (1957) decided that Girard’s actions were not authorized. Well, no kidding. Firing anything from a grenade launcher at a group of civilians is pretty “unauthorized.”

The Korean media, true to form, sensationalized and hyped the Walker incident to actually compare Walker’s actions to those of Girard. Sorry, but a soldier following his commander’s orders to drive an AVLB during a training exercise, was totally authorized. The fact that Walker got in a vehicle accident — which was admittedly a horrible accident — is in no way the same act.

Unless of course you’re trying to sell papers and get Koreans enraged. Mission accompished, obviously.

One more thing I wanted to clarify is that the 2002 SOFA contained something called a “first right of jurisdiction” for on-duty incidents. In other words, once an on-duty determination was made (driving an AVLB during training was definitely on-duty), then the second question was whether the U.S. would exercise or waive its “first right” to retain jurisdiction of the soldiers. The U.S. could have waived jurisdiction and handed the soldiers over to the Korean government. Even though the incident occurred on-duty.

So when the U.S. execrcised its “first right” and announced in a press release it would retain jurisdiction, Korea went crazy for a third time (the first time being immediately after the incident, the second when Camp Red Cloud was assaulted two days after Korea’s World Cup elimination). As the article points out, this was particularly hypocritical in light of Korea’s military jurisdiction at home, and existing Korean SOFAs for its own troops abroad.

Shortly after the announcement a U.S. soldier was kidnapped by a mob under the guise of having committed an assault. He was forced to read a prepared statement saying the SOFA was bad and needed to be changed. That’s why I say “went crazy.”

JAG D

10:19 am on September 9th, 2010

So when the U.S. exercised its “first right” and announced in a press release it would retain jurisdiction, Korea went crazy for a third time (the first time being immediately after the incident

There was very little reaction for several days after the accident – as Korea was completely wrapped up in the World Cup.

Maybe I was too close to the event, or “crazy” is too strong to describe the initial reaction — but the protestors and stories on the Korean press wire — especially the myth about the Katusa fighting Walker — were nearly instantaneous / contemporaneous with the accident itself.

I’ll grant that because of the WC, a lot of the initial incendiary reaction was overshadowed. But it’s not like people just all of a sudden decided to show up at CRC and breach the Main Gate after the WC loss. The propaganda machine, and leaks of gruesome photos on protest placards (being held by citizens and kids), mobilized by the weekend of the incident, esp in Dongducheon, Uijongbu, and Yongsan. After the WC, the full movement of “crazy” found a nationwide audience, to be sure.

#63 JAG D terrible, terrible grammar.

If anyone has any constructive comments or questions on the litigation itself, just let me know. I’ll defer to Strunk & White for grammatical foibles.

the comanding general should walk into the korean parliment ask them if they want us to leave them to mercy of north korea.then if they don’t respond to the ngos we walk see how they like that.

a

As an American-raised Korean, I have an admittedly unique perception on the surrounding attitudes of the incident. While certainly I acknowledge that there was quite a large departure from rationality on the part of the protesters, I hesitate at your willingness to paint the entire country with the same brush. Surely there has been (and still is, to some extent) similar expressions by Americans and American media, if only against themselves.

Take, for example, the Vietnam War. Surely you are familiar with the photo of the public execution that was spread across the nation that demonized your presence there. What wasn’t told to the public was that the executed prisoner was guilty of espionage and that the legal penalty for such was indeed death. And yet had you told anyone who had seen that picture on TV, can you really say that the response you would have gotten would have been too different from “everybody says so?” Perhaps it may have been closer to disbelief that you could be so “stupid” as that is closer to the American Way, but even so, the basic tenet would have been the same.

The media (and by extension, liberals) are quite dangerous, and if they feed on the public’s more basic instincts (such as preservation of children and women), it becomes easy to see why the nation may have become so incited. Also keep in mind that the entire country is about the size of Delaware. Organizing the entire country is not so far-fetched, especially with the support of the media (which is already traditionally left-leaning).

And, sadly, I am sure there are those who simply went along with it because the vocal majority was so forceful with it.

Regardless, I can tell you now that while there is a faint lingering of those emotions, they are by and large gone. There are new liberals spreading new reasons to hate America, but at least they are tempered by somewhat cooler minds. The fact that there is a conservative in the Blue House helps. The fact that North Korea recently showed its true colors twice in one year helps even more, although I’m afraid that the liberals are again making the nation weak in leaning on the president to become softer.

Korea is indeed quite homogeneous, and while there are some bad points (perhaps too many), certainly there are still yet some good parts of it. America is a nation that is no longer proud of itself, a nation that is beginning to self-destruct because not only does it not defend itself but it also openly attacks itself with words, a stronger weapon than bullets or bombs could ever be. It even goes to the extent of demonizing those who *are* proud of their American culture and heritage, how can such a thing strengthen a union?

And, if the result of your multi-culturism is unending terrorism and submitting to Islam, I would then feel quite safe in our xenophobia.

But I do grant you that our country has yet a long way to go regarding certain crimes. We do not have an exemplary record in our government. That said, barely a century ago, we did not have widespread electrical power or railroads and lived under a monarchy (soon to be annexed by Japan). Today we are on the cutting-edge of technology. Sadly, our societal advances have been lagging behind, but we will catch up. America began its industrial revolution in the early 1800s, had it in full swing by 1860, and passed the 19th Amendment in 1920. And even then, it took some time before women were considered equal, as even as late as the 1950s, women were seen as little more than kitchen adornments. I’ll be generous, however, and say that from the beginning of America’s advance into the future and the social recognition of women was roughly 120 years. Given that Korea has had but sixty with which to catapult from a war-torn nation to one of the strongest economic, technological, and communication powers of the world, I believe I can safely wager that they will soon catch up socially, and faster than America has.

America has had the luxury of time and (perhaps more importantly) democracy, something I would remind readers that the Republic of Korea has not truly enjoyed until the early 1990s. We are still adjusting, and there is quite the sore spot for any perceived injustice, as there has been quite a few valid injustices already committed. I’m afraid it is a case of the victim seeing muggers everywhere they go. That, and comparatively, America has an atrociously short memory. Most of Asia (Korea included) have histories that are decidedly longer, and the memory of committed wrongdoings done by outsiders will unfortunately taint our perceptions of any further mistakes.

For the record, “outsiders” haven’t had the greatest record, and that goes all the way back to the French Catholic missionaries that spat on our culture. And while you may not be French, I am afraid that you all do indeed look quite alike. So it is not too hard to understand why we are not overly fond of foreigners.

68, So it all boils down to (we look different). Check. Quite good of you to admit your country of Korea is a racist country. (Not like I didn’t know that already)

More justification for the black, white and brown people to leave korea to the Chinese.

Too bad Obama will not listen to me.

Standing in the Twilight:

Have you ever actually been to France? Paris in particular is home to several millions of blacks, Arabs, Viets, Chinese, Latin Americans, etc. “You all look alike”?….spare me.

Why do so many Korean people condemn Japan for colonial crimes committed by Imperial Japanese over 65 years ago, but totally overlook North Korea starving 1.5 million Koreans to death, gang-raping female inmates, doing medical experiments on prisoners, administering forced abortions, torturing inmates, kidnapping foreigners (not just Koreans and Japanese, but also Filipinos, Thais, Romanians and Lebanese, amongst others), counterfeiting U.S. currency, and illegally building nuclear weapons and selling arms to terrorists? By the way, the late Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Mu-Hyeon facilitated the latter by giving so much bribe money to Kim Jong-Il.

Some Koreans will say, “That’s different, because we’re the same race/ethnic group as North Koreans.” So that makes North Korea’s current injustices accepatble, but Japan’s past ones unacceptable? Alrighty then…are you saying that it’s all right for some Koreans to disrepect foreigners and their cultures (without whom and which South Korea wouldn’t even exist today), but only vice-versa is wrong?

Why do the ROKs overlook the north Korean atrocities?

Because it’s Bush’s fault!

BTW, in the litany of North Korean crimes I have listed, I forgot to mention extensive narcotics production and trafficking (eg. heroin, methamphetamines (“meth”), cocaine, etc.). Let’s not forget to touch on that as well.

I was a MP that responded to the accident scene where Shin and Shim were killed. Forget what you heard from people who dont know, i can tell you first hand no one was laughing, no one thought it was funny! The driver of the tank was so upset I had to physically help pull him out of the tank.The images of those girls haunt me to this day and i cant sleep at night from what i saw there that day. I pray that they will never be forgoten, god knows i will remember them for the rest of my life. may they RIP and my heart goes out to their family. and for the record every soldier i know feels the way i do. some one dieing is never funny and is a sad loss.

Well I certainly remember all we heard about this, over and over. Then I also remember when we stopped hearing about it. Does anyone else?

I drove the Bradley that was coming up the other direction.
The way that this story was told is inaccurate. This has caused me alof of nightmares
Over the years.

*sigh* this is y u Yankee bastards have to leave. maybe more kids won’t be turned into roadkill if there werent as many huge ass vehicles rolling around

Kor-Amer: and how many South Korean kids get killed by reckless and/or aggressive Korean drivers each year, including in 2002? Except the anti-U.S., anti-Western, ugly xenophobic and racist bigotry was in full force that year, so that particular incident was used by radical civic groups to blame everyone who looked foreign.

The South Korean government pays the U.S. to stay, and most South Koreans just about puddinged their pants when Donald Rumsfeld threatened to pull out all the U.S. troops in response to the bigoted violence against them at the time. Of course, if that happened, then North Korea would be very tempted to reinvade, and they’d stand a fair chance of winning the second time round.

Then, instead of having a handful of South Korean kids getting killed or injured by U.S. army vehicles in tragic accidents over a period of many years, millions of them would starve to death like their counterparts in the wonderful, foreigner-free paradise of North Korea, while the magnamimous elite there gorges on gourmet food and Hennessay whiskey, drives Mercedes-Benzes, goes to Singapore, China and Switzerland for shopping, etc.

[…] a military vehicle accidentally killed two teenage girls in what would later be deemed the “Yangju Highway Incident.” The tragedy sparked a greater wave of anti-American sentiment along with Apolo Ohno 2002 […]

hanbokcho, Retired GI, shattered, Ik zou graag je gezicht gesneden in linten

rus858582, you talk big on the interwebs; but you’re just a racist, cowardly troll that is acting in support of the butchers in Pyongyang… like so many others here…

The girls killed themselves by walking where it was not safe and they should have known it was not safe…

It’s still tragic; but it’s not the GI’s fault. No matter how many banners someone makes. No matter how many curses one utters. No matter how many protest vigils one attends.

And nothing we do will bring them back. So let’s try to make fewer wars and spread less hatred and BS so eventually all the soldiers can go home.

[…] and killed them.  It was also a period of heart-rending tragedy that saw an American military vehicle kill 13-year-old middle school girls Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun, who were walking along the roadside just outside of Seoul on the […]

I talked to a Korean a few months ago about this and he too still believes that the soldiers took it as a joke. I was dumbfounded, I simply said “You understand soldiers have daughters, and sons, and mothers, and farther, and a heart as well”

I then pointed out several ROK Military accidents, to which he hushed up.

I sometimes find the Korean attitude towards foreigners a little disheartening.

#82

We had several people presumably Americans here who were joking about it for the last few days right here in this forum. I also heard many American soldiers in clubs, joking about it, and making lots of disparaging remarks about the dead kids and Koreans in general whom the Americans had nothing but contempt for, right after the killings happened. I would say very few if any American soldiers at that time cared for those girls. The ones who claimed otherwise, were all bull sh1tters.

[…] At an progressing concert, in 2002, PSY crushed a indication of an American tank, Korean media sources say, protesting a exculpation of dual U.S. troops group who were concerned in an collision that killed dual South Korean teenagers. […]

Everything is very open with a really clear clarification of the challenges.
It was definitely informative. Your site is useful. Many thanks for sharing!

I want to tell you about The Yangju highway incident as korean.
Please.. understand my grammar is not perfect.

At first, you should know, we always thank for people who fought for freedom and democracy. Korea government set up memorial monument which be carved veteran names of the Korean war. so you should know it different with ani-america that be caused by The Yangju highway incident. (in korea called 효순이 미선이 사건)

Most important is that American soldiers did not deserve punishment.

After the Yangju highway incident, we just want to deserve punishment for death. So, we suppressed a demonstration with holding candlelight to US army for giving jurisdiction.

http://www.iacenter.org/images/korea_dec14.jpg (candlelight vigil)

but they did not …and…. say “not guilty”. then, ani-american wave was spreaded in korea. ( I can’t sure… perhaps…that time, psy sang ani-american)

it’s wrong!!! whoever, anyone if they make someone death, they should pay their guilty.

what would you do if korean army kill two american girls(age 12) by tank, then korea court judge “oh. not guilty.”

To tell you the true, before we had an illusion that USA is always righteous. Because… they fought with us against north korea…. we love them.. I think that time, may be.. korean felt sense of betrayal to USA.

well…. now… korean still love USA but we never forget Hyo-sun and Mi-seon.

*if you search ‘효순이 미선이 사건’ on the internet, you can watch girls body picture which was not blotted out by a camera. then you can understand korean angry and sad.

#83,

You would have had to have been in Korea to hear Americans soldiers joking about it, if they were indeed making light of the tragedy.

#86,

What you’re not considering is why that traffic accident remained unnoticed until months later. Don’t you think that’s odd?

Tell me, how do you feel about South Koreans who cause traffic accident deaths in South Korea? Do you burn your passport in protest? Of course not.

And, face it, the reaction was not limited to ‘candlelight vigils’. In my hometown, for example, some idiot spray-painted “USA F@cking” (his grammar mistake, not mine) on a building downtown for all people to see, even kids who probably asked their parents what that obscene word meant. There aren’t any US bases anywhere near my town, which confounded me. The only Americans that I knew of were a handful of hagwon teachers and the kids of a few of my US-educated Korean colleagues.

Moreover, some American soldiers were attacked (one was killed) in the months following this.

And, to make matters worse, it wasn’t just Americans who were targeted, but anyone who seemed American to the xenophobes and the racists.

No American soldiers have been killed by South Korean since 2000. And that was done by an insane homeless man who heard voices. So puhleessee..don’t spread more unfounded rumors about what happened years ago.

Teadrinker/

Actually, if korean kill korean by traffic accident, they have to deserve punishment: may be go to jail. but not judge no guilty.
Important is if you make crime or not, it’s no matter where come.

i’m so sorry to hear that. may be.. I think, that time which you suffered hardship was after US soldiers was declared not guilty.

That time I was young, so I can’t remember exactly. but after that judgement, korean was angry. we think it’s not fair.

Like many american can’t distinguish asian nation, we was same.
if your skin is white, then some people consider as american. because korea most have been effected US than other country. we just see as american sight.

I don’t know that ->some American soldiers were attacked (one was killed) in the months following this.

but whoever, they have to pay their guilty for victim right and social justice

Tom #83.

I never heard a soldier or civilian “joke” about the 2 girls getting run over, everyone thought it was a tragedy.

But, I do know of one older Korean man(Mr. Hwang) who laughed giddely about the people jumping off of the World Trade Center on 9/11, so funny to see those flaying arms and legs.

The same guy cried when relating about North Koreans eating their own children.

I could never figure out how this guy could find the 9/11 incident amusing.

He was a typical Korean older guy.

Sure, Ole Tanker, typical Korean man jokes about jumpers at 9/11 and laughs evily muhahahahaha… while rubbing their paws together, sure.

#90

In the American justice system, if no intent or negligence can be proven, it’s possible to be found to be an accident where no one is at fault. I understand that that perception is different in the Korean justice system where there is an expectation that someone is at at fault and must be found guilty. Some Americans here who are not covered under the US military’s in-the-line-of-duty protection have been shocked to find out that even if someone runs out in front of their car and is hit, they (the driver) will always be found to be at fault.

In the situation of this accident, was there negligence? Reading through the whole article there seems to have been many places where there was negligence. However, in the public rush to fix blame on the vehicle operators, much of the negligence that existed elsewhere went unnoticed.

It’s like a plane with faulty parts that is directed to fly a mission near a populated area. If the plane fails, the crew has to eject and the plane hits an occupied home, are the plane’s crew members guilty of a crime?

JoeC/

well I think. military troop have negligence , not to driver.
In korea, because of small country, sometimes, military troop be built near small town. so if they go out for training with tank, they have to charge that inform people for prevention using road during training. but by driver statement, they did not.

After accident, we also try to investigate accident, for confirmation a statement, prosecution called driver, but US troop did not to send..

So government asked to giving jurisdiction, (because of SOFA, if US troop did not agree, korea government can’t investigate US soldier crime.)

but they rejected our asking, and judged ‘not guilty’ without our opinion. there was only US troop judge.

yes. your right. korea justice system different with america justice system. our system is similar Germany justice system.
if driver take judge in our court, they might judge accidental homicide, even though they did not go to jail.

well maybe.. korean just angered that we couldn’t do anything even our little girls death. (that make us more sad)

anyway. I want to tell you Mi-seon father words after 10 year (2012)
“at first I was so sad but I didn’t think, they make dead intentionally. I hope diver become free from guilt.”

Tom: you make some good points. Also, after the Apolo Ohno incident in Salt Lake City, there were some Koreans putting up pro-bin Laden websites and praising the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the U.S.

As others have pointed out, the so-called “Sunshine Policy” was an abject failure, as North Korea didn’t reciprocate and start to reform itself. The billions of dollars given to the DPRK has simply made it more dangerous, as witnessed by torpedo attacks which have killed many South Korean sailors, or the shelling of the Yeon-Pyeon Island.

It also has made Iran more dangerous, since North Korea has conducted extensive trade in nuclear and missile technology with that country, which wouldn’t have been as great if South Korea hadn’t been funneling money to the North. Israel and Saudi Arabia would not be wrong in expressing some anger against South Korea for that, as Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened both of those countries (Saudi abd Israel) before.

[…] of Koreans (70 percent of those under 25) did not have a good impression of the U.S. (Website ROK Drop has an in depth look at the […]

[…] of Koreans (70 percent of those under 25) did not have a good impression of the U.S. (Website ROK Drop has an in depth look at the […]

[…] was also a period of heart-rending tragedy that saw an American military vehicle kill 13-year-old middle school girls Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun, who were walking along the roadside just outside of Seoul on the […]

As a Korean American, the facts posted on this site regarding the above referenced incident angers me. I am angry at the Korean media and its leaders for portraying American soldiers as evil doers who murdered with intent or were “laughing” at having created “roadkill”.

1> Anti-American leaders (including educators) have taken over the system in Korea and are maintaining an ideology of hatred towards America.

2> The U.S. military may have had issues with their radio system BUT the GIRLS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

Death is always tragic, no matter the circumstances. However, the media was also tasteless in posting pictures of the disfigured girls’ bodies online and in papers. The pictures just incited more negative reaction.

Lastly, to all the idiotic people protesting against the U.S., GET YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS OUT OF THE STATES BEFORE PROTESTING!

The hypocrisy behind the anti-American protesters never cease to amaze me – almost every single one of them have relatives or friends who are in the U.S. Most are here legally, some are not. Some came to chase after the American dream, others came to give birth to anchor babies. Bottom line: they are all in the States to “receive” and not “give”.

A message to native Koreans: It is okay for you, native Koreans, to hate on the U.S. It is your right. However, please stay out of the U.S. If you have friends or family members, please have them leave the U.S. We don’t want you/them here, either! Don’t bother learning English, if you hate the U.S. so much. Learn anything other than American style English and please don’t feel that your entitled ar$e is OWED anything by Americans.

I love my Korean identity but the way native Koreans have been behaving on the political platform regarding military and anti-American issues really makes me consider otherwise. I love the culture but hate the idiot anti-Americans.

-Angry Korean American (or should I write, American of Korean descent)-

#89,
Someone was attacked, stabbed. So, I might have confused two different attacks. Remains that someone tried to kill that soldier.

#94,

I was disgusted by the way certain people used the death of these two girls to further their political agenda. I’m happy Koreans nowadays aren’t going to allow themselves to be so easily fooled by these pro-North Korean groups.

[…] GI Flashback: The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident (ROK Drop) — A detailed viewpoint from the U.S. military side on what happened with the 2002 tank accident. […]

[…] was also a period of heart-rending tragedy that saw an American military vehicle kill 13-year-old middle school girls Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun, who were walking along the roadside just outside of Seoul on the […]

I remember this incident. I was in Korea then. The thing that stuck out in my mind – but was too insensitive and politically incorrect to say – was that the girls bear a little of the blame themselves. In typical Korean style, they kept walking even though a loudass group of tracks were coming up behind them. Now my unit in the States used to share a motor pool with Abrahms tanks, and when you were walking down the vehicle rows and heard them behind you…you got out of the way.

Same with this. There’s no way those girls didn’t hear or feel the vibrations from the tracks. They should have got off the road or ran ahead to cross the bridge instead of trying to walk along the bridge letting the tracks pass just a few feet from them.

It was a sad loss of life, but it could have been avoided with a little common sense.

I will always remember this day. I was in the convoy right behind the bridge layers. I was riding along with my CPT in a hummer with a group of LMTVs behind us. We where taking parts to a different part of Twin Bridges. I remember seeing the other convoy approaching and every one in the convoys trying to make room by inching the vehicles closer to the edge of the pavement. Then everything came to a stand still and my CPT dismounted to see if there was a problem. He came running back to grab poncho liners / blankets to cover the bodies and had us set up a Traffic Control Point (TCP) to turn around the vehicles behind us. I remember walking up to inform him that the TCP was set and saw a dozen or so Soldiers standing around the girls, silent, most had tears in their eyes. I had never seen a senior leader cry before. I’m glad you have this page outlining the facts of the situation. I was a young Soldier then and didn’t understand what was going on in the media. I was stationed at Casey and only knew that certain days we couldn’t leave the base or could only leave by going out through Camp Hovey (sp?). We pulled guard at the gates and set up vehicle check points after the Red Cloud incident but I never really understood why. I knew it had been a terrible accident but had never heard that the media was portraying the accident as a blatant murder. Those streets where narrow and dangerous but what was worse was how they had us drive for hours on end with little to no sleep. I will never forget this day and continue to use it as a reminder when ever I give a Convoy Safety Brief.

what was worse was how they had us drive for hours on end with little to no sleep

This was an accident waiting to happen.

Stumbled upon this while looking for news on that 2ID accident. Having read the stories and seen all the arguments and sensationalism I had never actually seen visuals from the time of the accident. I think it really gives better context to the whole thing:

(These are pretty raw, if you don’t want to see pictures of dead girls on the road don’t click the link! :x)
http://uncoveringtheworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/two-korean-school-girls-killed-in-armored-vehicle-accident-south-korea/

Here’s how it looks today:
http://map.daum.net/?panoid=1024907711&pan=265.0&tilt=5.6&zoom=0&map_type=TYPE_SKYVIEW&map_hybrid=true&map_attribute=ROADVIEW&urlX=488850&urlY=1210533&urlLevel=3

You can see based on the driver’s position and that there’s machinery blocking his view to the front-right that there’s no way he’d of seen them actually getting hit. The right tread’s touching grass and the left is touching the median line so there was literally no more room. Of course this isn’t to say the driver is free of any repsonsbility.

There’s blame enough for all in this event:
* Why’d the convoy try to pass knowing those kids were to the right? It should’ve stopped and forced them to get to the other side before passing.
* Why’d the Korean government find it acceptable to keep roads in such conditions despite the massive buildup in vehicular traffic, why did it also agree to allow immensly wide, slow to control vechicles travel these roads? They are responsible for providing safe lanes of travel.
* Why’d USFK continue to drive super heavy track vehicles while fully knowing how Koreans aren’t the most aware travellers and that traffic density added to poor road conditions meant sooner or later something real bad was going to happen.
* Why didn’t the girls get over to the right? You surely could hear that beast coming up the road and I know if it were me I’d of gotten the hell out of there, I’m not one to put my life into the hands of another.

You can see now via Daum that there’s a sidewalk but as all too often with government, too little too late. There’s still roads in Korea on and off base with heavy traffic and moderate pedestrian traffic with no sidewalks (yeah I’m looking at you USAG Yongsan, you’ve been there like 70 years what the F were you waiting for? :evil:).

In any case if you’re going to be one of those people who like to use this event to bolster some other argument pro or anti US(FK) that really has nothing to do with this event then I suggest right before you do so to look at those photos and get it deep in your head that you’re using those dead girls, you should be ashamed.

(And here’s the soapbox, I’m done with it…)

Too late, Smokes.

We have been through this… well… since 2002. Eleven years. There is little you can add to the discussion.

Yes: Why didn’t the girls walk up the incline out of the roadway when the big, slow, noisy tracked vehicles started to get close.

No: Did the drivers of the tracked vehicles decide they were going to hunt middle school girls that day.

This event, and the protests than followed it, probably generated more discussion than any other event I’ve ever discussed.

Oddly enough, if the World Cup hadn’t been in full swing in Korea at the time, it might have been even worse.

On the whole look at how complex it was by the time everything had setlled down. What started as an accident turned into a huge mess staring misinformation, ignorance, subversion, ____ism, etc…

Social poisoning was at its highest in Korea I’d say, thanks to the dubious Roh’s and incompetent LaPorte’s actions. Wouldn’t be surprised if LTG “Grandstand” Honore excaerbated things but haven’t seen anything to indicate as such.

Makes me wonder why it takes things like this and the Osan Hundcuff’ing to get the RoK and USFK talking to ensure the relationship stays a good one?

[…] background of the story is the 2002 World Cup in South Korea, and the accident in which a US tank killed two Korean girls. There are three main characters and there are chapters for every one of […]

Thanks for this post. It’s hard to find detailed information on what actually happened. I know someone who was a KATUSA soldier stationed there during that time, and he has talked about how he was asked to go talk to protestors, but he was afraid of them. It made me very curious about the full story – thanks again.

I do want to mention one thing after reading all the comments. I don’t think this was the drivers’ fault, but I also disagree with the folks blaming the girls. They were not adults, they were 14, an age where you have really developed a sense of bravado and invincibility, and are much less likely to be careful, especially in the presence of a peer. If it had been two adults walking, it probably would have turned out differently, because they would have had a better sense of danger and not care about following what the other was doing. I’m not saying that better common sense on their part wouldn’t have helped – just that there’s a reason we don’t charge kids with making life and death decisions or send them into dangerous situations. They can’t be expected to be developmentally equipped at that age to handle situations with proper caution.

Based on comments from those who were there, this seems to be a tragic accident, with the only fault factor being a systemic lack of sufficient caution by command. Several other commenters have mentioned this incident’s use in training, now. It’s very sad that a lack of caution had to be remedied by the death of two kids… but then, that is the case for many major accidents and disasters.

I served in Korea Feb 1978-Feb 1979 HHB 2/17FA and luckily we had wheeled vehicles, no tracks and also operated in much rural areas. I looked at the site of former Camp Pelham and was surprised at how built up Sunyu-ri is now. I do remember taking my Gama goat M561 on a mail run to Seoul during the winter and that was harrowing enough.

 

 

ROK Drop Book Review: Seasons in the Kingdom

| May 28, 2008

There are very few countries that have had as many things happen to it in such a short time then Korea.  The nation in just the past 55 years since the end of the Korean War has faced communist insurgencies, coups, break neck economic development, assassinations, economic collapse, as well as a successful democracy movement.  Throughout all these years American servicemembers rotating for mostly one year tours on the peninsula have bared witness to all the set backs and accomplishments of the Republic of Korea.

Despite this constant presence of the American military in Korean society, very little has been written about the GI experience in Korea.  This is what makes Tim Norris’s book, Seasons in the Kingdom such a unique addition to the growing number of Korea related books.  Norris’s book is a historical work of fiction that follows the life of a US Army soldier who was drafted into the Army and instead of being sent to Vietnam was sent to South Korea to complete a tour of duty on the peninsula between 1973-1974.


1964 picture of ASCOM City.

The soldier, Mike is given orders to work as a guard at the 8th Army Confinement Facility, which at that time was located on the outskirts of Incheon in an area known as ASCOM (Army Support Command).  ASCOM was the US military’s main logistical support hub at the time and the only remnants of it that remains today is Camp Market.  The story initially develops by following Mike’s interactions with fellow soldiers in the barracks before getting into the meat of the story, which is his life in the “ville” which are the small camptowns located outside US military installations in Korea.


1968 image of a ville outside a US military camp.

For those that have served on the Korean peninsula during or near this time frame; this book should really bring back memories of what it was like back then as Norris explains in great detail, not only what the life of a GI was like in the ville, but the girls working there as well.  Norris does a great job describing the girls working in these clubs by really bringing home to the reader that these girls were more than just prostitutes, but people who also had hopes and dreams before being shackled by the club system.


1968 photo of US military barracks bunk.

In order to describe the life of the numerous Korean prostitutes working in the GI camptowns, Norris has Mike meet the beautiful Songhi.  Songhi’s life like many in Korea was filled with bitter disappointment and strife after she was locked into the club system by a scheming ajumma when she was forced to quit college due to her father not having enough money to pay for her education and Songhi’s younger brother as well.  Songhi like many girls working in the ville dream of marrying a GI in order to escape the club system that has trapped her and to bring her a better life in America.

The rest of the story develops as Mike eventually purchases Songhi from the club ajumma to become what was known back then as a “yobo”.  The yobo system no longer exists today, but back then GIs could purchase girls from the clubs, set them up in a small apartment, and that woman would effectively be their girlfriend for the entire year they were in Korea.  Being a yobo was highly sought after by the club girls because it meant they no longer had to prostitute themselves in the club anymore and increased their chances of marrying a GI.


1968 photograph of a Korean girl outside a US military club in Korea.


Sign posted on base in 1968 warning soldiers of club girls with STDs.

As their relationship develops both Songhi and Mike have unrealistic expectations of each other, but neither seems to realize it until Songhi becomes pregnant with Mike’s baby.  The book concludes with Mike completing his tour of duty in Korea and having to come face to face with what kind of life and future he wanted to have with Songhi.

The story is compelling, but the real reason why I recommend people should read this book is not for the story, but to get a better understanding of the conditions servicemembers serving in Korea during this time frame experienced.  This book makes clear the latent racism and the huge drug problem that plagued the US military in the 1970s.  The drug problem in the ranks was so bad that soldiers were arrested for using their M-16s to murder Korean drug dealers when drug deals went bad.  In fact two soldiers were so high on drugs that they took their weapons and had a stand off on Seoul Tower with the Korean police before finally giving themselves up.

The book also describes how some guards used to beat black prisoners and how some clubs became segregated by race as well. The racism was just between white and black soldiers but many soldiers also directed their racism and frustrations at the Koreans as well.  Even in the 1970’s “gook” was still a common term for a Korean.


1969 picture of Korean women in Seoul.

Likewise the Koreans themselves were very racist.  The prostitutes in the ville were considered the bottom of society and often insulted in the streets for associating with GIs, especially black GIs.  Children of these women often had no other options in Korean society other than becoming workers in the camp system themselves.


1968 image of a village woman.

In many aspects the US military’s behaviour back then was less then admirable and it is easy to see why many 386 generation Koreans still hold negative stereotypes of the US military based off their experiences from growing up during this time frame.  Like the incredible progress Korea has made over the years, US military has come a long way as well and this book is a welcome reminder of that.  Hopefully one day the ville system still in place today will be the last reminder of this time.

____________________________________________________

Note: More reviews of the book can be read here and Seasons in the Kingdom is available on Amazon for those interested in purchasing the book.

That Mishelov site is great for pictures of that time period.

A wall with Korean whores names with STD’s. It seems as if Korea was one big whore house then.

I guess with all the red light dist, room salons, business clubs, da bang’s (coffee shops), booking clubs (sure is a long list and there is more LOL)in Korea these days, things sure have changed and sure have stayed the same.

It is a great site for pictures especially high quality color pictures of that time period.

[…] GIKorea at ROKDrop.com reminds us that the US forces in Korea have come a long way since 1974 as well. May 26, 2008 […]

Thanks for the great review of my novel, Seasons in the Kingdom. I appreciate it and all that you do.
Best,
Tim at nandupress!

[…] from reader’s of this novel, many by Korean Service Veterans & others. ROK Drop Review. Go here to read review at ROK Drop, which includes other links for Korea and Korean Veterans. This is the most recent review, but be […]

I was stationed on a missile tact side in south korea in the year 1970, while there i caught Tuberculosis and had to be flown back to the states to be treated for my ten remaining month in the service and was given a early release in feb 3 1972, my memory of the place is not so good , i nearly died over their with active Tuberculosis , and still suffer with breathing problems assocated with my old Tuberculosis, I think if i had not had relationships with the korean woman my health and life would have been of a better quality..but i was young and stupid like all young people back then, and i never knew the risk that i was taking back them as far as my health was conserned, I have never read the book about korea, maybe i will in the future ..good day stanley Ray Mcqueen

Tim no problem it was a great book and I enjoyed reading it.

Stanley sorry to hear about the TB. Korea has come a long ways since then but it is still not uncommon to hear about people getting diagnosed with TB unfortunately. I do recommend you check out the book since you were stationed in Korea back then. You would probably enjoy it.

I visited Ascom City on my recent trip to Korea. Amazingly parts of Sin-Chon, my village, and Cherry Hill are still there. Photos to follow soon on my website. I visited the house where I lived and walked some of those alleyways. The rice fields around our compound are now all apartments blocks that loom over the remaining parts of the old villages. Will update when photos are available.

Best,

Tim Norris

I have just posted images of Sinchon, Cherry Hill, and the village nearby. These images are from my recent trip, but they alleyways are still there from my time in Korea. I also have a few comparative shots of the village from then and now.

Best, and more to come.

Tim

I was on the DMZ in ’67-’68 and I can tell you it was all business when we were on the zone, very serious stuff. There was a huge difference between being stationed on the DMZ and near Seoul. I only made it to Seoul once and it was only about 35 miles away. The life in the ‘ville was probably the same except for the racism, as far as I knew all races coexisted very well. I had a number of black friends, although we didn’t have too many black guys in my infantry unit, perhaps more were stationed down south. The Koreans were still very much appreciative of what we did for them during the Korean War although many GI’s were jerks to the Korean people.

I will buy the book and thanks for writing of your experiences.

I enjoyed reading your book Tim.

As I worked for the NCO Club Admin office I seen a lot of the interaction between the Korean women and the GI’s as you spoke of in your book.

I spent a few days at the Ascom City base just prior to my departure from Korea.

I really enjoyed the Korean language cross refrence in your glossary. I liked the Military Language and Bamboo English too.

I look forward to seeing your recent pictures of Korea.

Paul in Tampa

Tim, great photos of the old ville. I liked your before and after shots that show how much the area has changed.

I’m glad you enjoyed your return trip to Korea.

Sounds like me…I ordered the book…I’m sure it will be a great read and a real memory jogger. I was there in the late 50s and 1969-70.

I was in the 249th 1968-1969

If you will tell me how I will send you a picture.

Paul, be sure to check out my website at http://www.nandupress.com.
thanks tim

Tim

Thank you for helping Ronnie Partin and I to get in touch with each other after over 35 years, since being in the 249th together in 1968.

I was fresh out of basic training in 1979 assigned to the 249th MP Det Confinement Facility. As soon as I reported to the First Sergent he had me, himself and two of my buddies breaking the ice up in the duck pond. I knew this place was wieird. After my tour I releized how much I missed it. No I did’t have a YOBO I was still playing the bars and saving money instead one sucking me dry. We only had one attempt escape.

Steve,

I’d like to hear from you. You would probably down at Camp Humphreys. I remember when we moved the stockade down there in ’75. It was a big deal to move into modern facilities. I have many posted pics and more coming of the 249th at Ascom City. Any photos or stories please send them my way.

Best,

Tim Norris

Steve,

website is http://www.nandupress.com.
Thanks. Tim

Tim,

I have no pic’s I was just 17 and too excited leaving home for the first time, my one year flew by fast. We had a pretty good softball team and that duck pond we had came in handy in the summer months. By the way chickens can swim. The problem with the pond was the ducks and chickens kept missing, we thought it was the KATUSA. found out it was the perimiter guards that stayed in our compound, TASTY If you have pics of the Humphry’s 249th mp could you send them at steven.gunn@kbr.com I’m presently a civilian in IRAQ for DOD.

Hi Tim,

I have just ordered the book! I was one of the few civilian women who followed my husband to South Korea.

05/69-09/70. We lived in the village of Bupyong Dong about a 15 minute walk from the post. We took many pictures as we spent a lot of time at the craft shop on the base. We did the developing ourselves. It sure was an interesting time. We have a lot of stories! I was fortunate to secure a job at the 121st evacuation hospital and witnessed the Pueblo crew arriving. I have often wondered how the area is now. Anxious to read the book.

Jennifer, glad to hear from you. You can contact me direct at nandupress.com…I have my email addresses there. Best to you. Interested in pictures of the village when you have the time to share. Tim Norris

Jennifer,

Thanks for commenting and I would be interested in seeing any photos you may have as well. If you want you can post them over at the ROK Drop Forums to share with everyone:

http://rokdrop.com/forums/

Where is the lovely song you had on your site “arirang”.

tim,

i have many photos of ascom and the guys

in my unit,the 728th MP, company A.

i was stationed there from january 1968 to

may 1969.

have not read your book but plan to do so.

gerry landrum

Gerry,

Thanks for your comments. You may want to check out my website where I have some excellent donated photos to look at. Look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Tim

tim i was in the 249th mp 1969-1970 i was the only one that was in the stockade, tdy and perment party all in 18 months

Gerry,

Just wanted to check to see if you received your book?

Best, Tim

Charles,

Glad you have made contact…check out my website http://www.nandupress.com for photos and other information about 249th MP Detachment…best, tim

Tim

I just came back from Korea, I went in October 2009 returned to America November 2009. I did not go back to where the old 249th was when I served there in 1968-1969,the ASCOM Area, but much has changed and become very modernised, I spent one month in down town Soul Korea on my last trip to Korea in 2009.

Landrum, I was assigned to A Co. 728th MPs November 15, 1970 for about 3 months before being transferred to Yongsan. I never really knew what the hell the post’s name was. Did you know Daniel Dwyer, Joins, or Roy Areana?

Oh! believe me when I say C Co. lived on a condemmed ROK Marine compound it wasn’t better then A Co. barracks. Yongsan Compound was nice but the MPs didn’t live there, we were half way between Yongsan and the Han River, right by the bus station.

I was assigned to A co. 728th MP Co. February 1968 to May 1969. Co. C 728th Mp Bn 1969 to 1971. 1975 Camp Market. 2ND infantry div MP Camp Pelham, PDSK 1978 Wanshmnee Security for the Norther Operations district for the pipeline. A total of 8 years in Korea.

I’d like to comment on Dave L’s statement:

“although many GI’s were jerks to the Korean people.”

John Duncan, director of UCLA Center for Korean Studies, made a similar statement. His first contact with Korea was, you guessed it, via US Army.

“He (John Duncan) also recalled that during his Army stint he was repulsed by the behavior of many fellow G.I.’s towards South Korean employees and locals they came in contact with near the demilitarized zone.”

Here’s the link:
http://www.international.ucla.edu/korea/news/arti…

I was stationed at camp Wentzel for a short time in 70. Was a section sgt with a 4 duece mortar platoon 2nd/9th/HqHq. I remember life being quite grand there, modern facilities and all. I remember Spoonbill Bridge as a pontoon structure close by on the river. I also remember my first of many visits to the vil. We soon packed up everything, turned the camp over to the Korean Army and moved down the river just north of Libby Bridge. Our platoon however was stationed several miles away from the main camp out closer to the MDL. Our little camp was knowns as RC#10. It was quite primative but we had alot of freedom there and took turns with long stays in Souel, ChangPaRi and I believe PoeWaNe, parden my spellings. It was an interesting experience at RC#10, to be caressed to sleep each night by the loud Speakers on the north side of the fence. I recall a huge hard drug problem in at the main camp but our tight little group preferred beer and pot. I also recall our platoon being all white or asian. But I had several black friends I had made prior to our separation from the rest of the Company and I often joined them in the village. One night all hell broke loose and two of my black friends came into the club where I was, grabbed me saying nothing and slipped me down a dark ally and they told me to get the hell out of there. The next day I learned that there had been a big clash between black and white soldiers with serious injuries. The girls were my fondest memories as they by the most part were attractive and very pleasant ladies. I had a yobo for most of the time I was there and she was beautiful and very smart. The guys I hung out with were polite and always helpful to the Koren people. Needless to say I enjoyed my stay in Korea and have very fond memories of the Korean People and especially the home rice and the kimchi.

I was at Greaves and Liberty Bell… what camp was north of Libby? I remember RC#4 and Camp Pelham in Sonju-ri, but north of the river, when I was there in the 80’s, we only had Greaves, Liberty Bell and Bonifas (plus tent city).

Found your blog on AskJeeves, great information, but the site looks awkward in doing my browser setup, but will work fine in IE. choose figure.

I read this book and am kind of torn over hit. The story of Mark and Songhi is magnificent and they way he brings the juicy girls into three dimensions is simply wonderful. But the editing was horrible! And I am not referring to a misspelled word here in there. Repeat sentences and even whole paragraphs one after the other is just a total no go!

One minor point. I found Songhi’s background story to be a tad distracting. Yeah, I know you can find club girls in similar situations. But come on, did she have to be a drop out from an elite university?

Was stationed at Taegu with the 503 MP Det. After ASCOM started to close we be came A Co 728th MP Bn, had alot of MP’s from ASCOM. We were split up between Pusan Taegu and Waegwan. I ended up at Camp Carroll in Waegwan with many of the MP’s from ASCOM. Went there the first time to escort three GI’s to the stockade after the Taegu riots.

Chris in Dallas: I agree. I haven’t been able to finish it yet because of the editing and some of the writing. I can’t understand why broken English was used to portray a conversation between two Koreans (presumably speaking Korean). I thought it somewhat demeaning. Also, some of the prose used to describe various scenes was waaaay too wordy. But, I will finish it for no other reason than the story line.

I WAS STATIONED WITH 121ST. EVACUATION HOSPITAL IN ASCOM CITY, FROM NOVEMBER 1960 – FEBRUARY 1962. I WAS A MEDIC WITH THIS HOSPITAL. THE LONGEST TIME I EVER HAD OFF IN ALL THOSE MONTHS THERE WAS 3 DAYS. MY RNR WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE OF WHO KNOWS WHY! THEN I WAS EXTENTED BY UNCLE SAM FOR 3 ADDITIONAL MONTHS. I CAME HOME ON THE USS GAFFEY. AFTER SERVING THERE I WAS STATIONED UPSTATE NEW YORK, WHERE I BECAME ILL AND WAS GIVEN A MEDICAL RETIREMENT FROM THE ARMY.
ALBERT PACELLO

A Profile of the Korea Training Center (KTC)

| May 25, 2008

Introduction

A place soldiers in the 2nd Infantry Division become very familiar with during a tour in Korea is the Korea Training Center (KTC).  The KTC is where gunneries for Bradley and tank crews is often held along with live fire exercises for both aerial and rotary wing platforms.

Helicopters parked at the Korea Training Center.

The KTC has additional ranges and land for just about any other type of training exercise needed for Second Infantry Division units.  The range is located about 16 kilometers northeast of the Second Infantry Division installation of Camp Casey as the crow flies, but due to the rugged terrain the drive to the KTC takes about an hour to complete from the camp by a military vehicle:

The KTC is bordered by the small farming community of Yeongpyeong-ri which is considered part of the larger Pocheon city municipality:

Driving through Yeongpyeong-ri no one would have any idea that in the valley just to north of town is Korea’s premier range training complex if it wasn’t for the one sign indicating which direction to turn to reach the range.  The small village is totally unlike other villages and cities bordering US military installations because there are no clubs and absolutely no signs of a US military presence in the area due to regulations restricting soldiers from leaving the range complex.

Local Concerns

However, just like we have seen with other USFK range locations, the local residents are demanding compensation for having to live next to the range:

Pocheon city officials are asking the South Korean government for millions of dollars worth of funding to make up for the continued presence of U.S. Forces Korea’s largest live-fire range.

Although USFK plans to relocate its northernmost bases south of Seoul by 2012, it will continue to use the 22 ranges within the Rodriguez Range complex in Pocheon.

Kim Hong-jin, chief of Pocheon’s Policy Development Division, said that local residents put up with noise, property damage and disruptions to daily life that call for governmental compensation.  [Stars & Stripes]

As of 2008 no agreement has been reached on paying any compensation to residents living near the range complex. (Update: As of 2016 still no agreement has been reached.)  I have always found it interesting how it seems that residents only complain about USFK tanks, bombs, and airplanes making noise while the Korean military’s noise does not draw the same complaints.

(Update: Misfired TOW Missile Strikes Building Outside of Rodriguez Range Limits)

Rodriguez Range

For troops stationed in the 2nd Infantry Division the noise at the Korea Training Center means they are receiving the best live fire training available in South Korea:

Tanks doing gunnery at the KTC. Image via VOA News.

The multipurpose range complex (MPRC) at the KTC is primarily used to support Abrams and Bradley gunnery exercises on the main Rodriguez Range (Called Rod Range for short by GIs) as well as on the adjacent Warrior Valley range.  The range is a bit unusual to most gunnery ranges in the United States because units literally fire into the side of a mountain:

On the other side of the mountain there are actually a number of South Korean villages:

With the threat of civilian damage maintaining range fans is extremely important when firing at the KTC compared to firing at ranges located in the United States.  Watching night fires at the range can be extremely impressive when viewing ricochets hit off the side of the mountain and put on a mini fireworks show.

The US armored crews are not the only ones that use the range, the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army units use the range as well:

US and ROK soldiers train together at the KTC. Image via Army.mil.

Having fired Bradley Table VIII gunnery on Rodriguez Range more times then I can remember, I have found it to be one of the most difficult ranges to fire on during the summer months because of vegetation and that obscures the green pop up targets. Guys that fire well on Rod Range earn it.  However, I have also fired on the Warrior Valley range and have found that one to be quite an easy range to fire on thus causing most units to want their crews to fire on Rodriguez Range if possible to get the maximum training value out of the gunnery exercise.

Other Training Ranges

The KTC is also able to support Artillery, Mortar, Close Air Support, and Apache gunneries as well.  The range is also used for aerial gunnery from Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters.  The range is also being increasingly used by Stryker units that have been rotating to the peninsula in recent years for training.  The KTC also has a number of small arms and grenade ranges as well for soldiers to train on.  The range is also being increasingly used for convoy live fires by logistical units as well:

Finally the range has been upgraded to include an Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) range.  This new range was recently used by the US Marines who deployed to South Korea during the recent Key Resolve exercise to teach and train with the Korean military in urban warfare tactics:

Support Facilities

Something soldiers stationed in Korea appreciate about the KTC is that the range has a small support area with open bay barracks, showers, a KATUSA snack bar, and even a small pizza shack.

However, for those of us who have under gone Bradley Table VIII gunnery at Rodriguez Range there is little time to enjoy these facilities because firers spend the vast majority of their time out on the range mostly waiting in line to fire and simply sleep in their vehicles.  However, the soldiers out there to support the gunnery live quite well in one of the best support facilities I have seen at a US gunnery range.

Conclusion

Overall the Korea Training Center is a good facility to keep USFK soldiers properly trained and certified on their respective weapon systems.  The range continues to improve with more technological updates and innovations being installed at the range.  There is probably not a more important training area for USFK in all of Korea then the KTC.  This means that the Korea Training Center will continue to play a major role in the training of USFK forces now and well into the future.

Note: You can read more from the ROK Drop featured series “A Profile of USFK Bases” at the below link:

Comments:

Small update… there is no longer a small pizza shack, as well as a Shopette trailer. Right next to the haircut place, they now have a somewhat bigger shopetter and an american snack bar that serves anthony’s pizza as well. Hell they even now have an internet cafe in there. And as a bonus for shits and giggles they have an ajosshi with a table right outside selling his little wares and every now and then the brand new car salesman are there with a car on display.

Dont know about how well the support facilities compare to others as I havent been to JRTC and NTC in awhile, but YTC (Yakima Training Center near FT Lewis) has pretty good facilities.

Thanks for the update. It appears the support facilities at KTC continue to improve.

Last time I was at NTC just the big shoppette behind where units put their tents up was allowed to be used by trainees. YTC has the small camp area but when I did gunnery there we were not allowed to use it. We stayed out in the field in tents the whole time and fired gunnery and went back to Lewis.

[…] in South Korea were messages to his comrades on top secret military targets. Sometimes he was just too blatant about it. His little “Korea Finder” games he played where readers had to guess the […]

I was stationed in this area on 2 of my tours. I spent several months just north of this at Camp Kaiser, nex to Uncheon City. Back in 1960 it was called Unchon-ni. I drove a truck, and used the back road that went just to the west of Rod Range, up through what was called Greek Valley, then into the rear gate of Cp Kaiser.

The other place was at Camp St Barbara, which was just about 2 miles west of Rod Range, where old highway 37 crossed the Hantan river. There is a air strip there that is still used by some of the aviation units while at Rod. It is R228 or G228.

If any of you guys use 228, please get some pictures. I was there in 1970.

The village there is Baekui-ri. Had some GREAT Times there.

[…] http://www.qsl.net/wd4ngb/ckaiser.htm &#149 Found on Google, Windows Live, Yahoo! Search, Ask.com A Profile of the Korea Training Center Pocheon city officials are asking the South Korean government for …. I spent several months just […]

[…] urban warfare facility at Rodriguez Range has really come along over the last few years to provide some great training for 2ID […]

I was at K-2, Taegu, June 1952 to May 1953. I am looking for the site of the Naktong Gunnery Range so I can post a brass plaque in commemoration of the site. It was on the Naktong River 5 hours in a 6by or 83 miles along the river to the North. No one living today seems to know where it was including 3 who were there. If you know please contact me at 44-208 Malae Place, Kaneohe, Hawaii 808 254-1221. I will give you photos. I have returned to Korea 4 times, 5th at the end of August 2010 on a revisit program sponsered by the Korean Government. I wish to return to the site and leave a commemoration plaque. Please help if you know. aloha, Harry

Bruce,
Here’s a google map shot of Baekui-ri today. If you zoom in you can see the airstrip you spoke of just north of Highway 37. Doesn’t seem like much is happening there that would qualify as GREAT Times. Would love to hear your war stories from back in the day! My first tour there was in 90 and my last in 2011. Trying to get hired as a contractor up at KTC and if I do, I’ll get you some street shots of Baekui-ri when i do.
Matt

Harry,
If you’d like, shoot me any info (local landmarks, etc.) you have near the Naktong Gunnery Range and I’ll do what I can to help. Is it up by Andong? If so, it’s likely a ROKAF range now or overgrown, but I’ve lived in Daegu on and off for six years (my dad was stationed at K2 for a year in 69) and I also do alot of hiking. Wish me luck!
Matt

Matt,
Between some of the readers here, and GI Korea, I have added some recent photos of the southern part of Camp St Barbara and Baekui-ri (called Peggy Lee back in the day). It was a small village, but had at least 8 clubs back in the 60s and early 70s when the camp was occupied full time by US troops.

Here is the most recent photos:
http://www.qsl.net/wd4ngb/stb-now-2.htm

Bruce,
Looking at those pictures gives a great idea of what St. Barbara was like (I’m assuming the camp is now the ROK military camp that abuts the airfield)? The range facilities look like they’re kept up (I noticed range towers near some of them), but I’ll bet most units just roll down to Rod Range to shoot small arms vs. trying to coordinate with the ROKs. Cool! My offer is still on for the street shots if I get that job!
Matt

Matt,
Would love to see anything you can get from the area. The big thing about Cp St Barbara was the 8 inch and 175 mm Arty units that were there, a Battalion of each, plus the St Barbara Artillery Range that was at the north end of the camp. All the 1st Cav, 7th Inf, and 2nd Inf div, and I Corp Artillery units did all there firing there.

The small village was like a large Recreation Center, since the locals treated the GIs very well. I had 4 tours in Korea, and the time at St Barbara was the best of them. I walked the road from there, up past Rod Range, on the back road to Uncheon, called Unchon-ni back then. Nice scenery

i spent three or four days out at G228 in early 2009 for crew drills. it was pretty overgrown at the time. google maps shows some development on the parking apron and nearby that wasn’t there four years ago. sorry no landmark photos, but we took a group picture.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=73457341678
http://goo.gl/maps/Gc4o9

Wow, this brought back a few memories! I was there serving as Apache Troop 1SG Dec 96-Dec 97. Not sure if this is the right forum for a question, however here goes. I Squadron photo was taken at the Korean Training Center during one of our Gunneries. I believe it was mid summer / early fall and was shot between the snack bar and ready line. The photo included the 4/7 Command Group standing in frount of and on top of an M1A1. I would love to have a copy for my collection. I PCSed before I could get a copy. Thanks for listening and loved the site. ‘GARRY OWEN’

DMZ Flashpoints: The 1967 Camp Liberty Bell Attack

| May 20, 2008

Prelude to Attack

There have been many flashpoints on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) over the years with patrols being ambushed and even an American barracks being bombed, but there has probably never been a North Korean attack as brazen as the ambush on Camp Liberty Bell.  On the afternoon of August 28, 1967 soldiers of Charlie Company 76th Engineer Battalion had just returned to Camp Liberty Bell for dinner after a hard day of working on improving the main road that travels north to the Korean armistice village of Panmunjom located 2.3 kilometers north of the camp.

camp liberty bell map
Map of the DMZ via The Advocate website

The August 31, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars & Stripes newspaper.

Chow Hall Ambush

Some soldiers were sitting down on tables eating while many others were still waiting in line to get their food. As the soldiers went through their daily ritual to get their chow shots suddenly rang out and bullets smashed into the chow hall tent. Soldiers ran for cover and others turned over the chow hall tables in hopes they would provide adequate cover from the incoming bullets.

camp Liberty Bell1
Hill overlooking Camp Liberty Bell where North Korean commandos attacked the camp in 1967.  Image via the 2ID Association website.

The soldiers outside also raced for cover and spotted the gunmen on a 100 meter hill overlooking Camp Liberty Bell firing down on the American soldiers. The camp’s quick reaction force (QRF) raced to prepare a counterattack against the enemy. With shots still ringing out, the quick reaction force advanced up a road leading to the top of the hill to intercept the gunmen. The QRF took two casualties as they advanced up the road when one of the American soldiers stepped on a landmine planted by the North Korean commandos.  By the time the QRF was able to get to the top of the hill the commandos had fled. The QRF estimates that they saw about 9-12 North Korean commandos on the hill and found over 1,000 rounds of unspent Soviet 7.62 ammo left at the firing position on the hill. The QRF followed the commandos’ tracks leading from the position and determined they had successfully crossed back over the DMZ to North Korea.

camp liberty bell google earth
In this modern day Google Earth image you can see the hill that rises above the current Camp Bonifas where Camp Liberty Bell at the time time of the attack was located.  The proximity of the DMZ fence made escape very easy for the North Korean commandos. 

The aftermath of the attack saw Camp Liberty Bell with pools of blood splattered across the compound mixed with the shouts of pain and suffering from the wounded. Unfortunately three soldiers could not shout out in pain because they lied dead on the ground after the North Korean attack. The initial dead included one American, Specialist Michael Vogel and two Korean KATUSA soldiers that died in the unprovoked attack. Private First Class Curtis Rivers was seriously wounded and would later die of his wounds raising the death toll further.

August 31, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars & Stripes.

Attack Aftermath

The attack was considered the most serious attack since the signing of the Korean armistice agreement in 1953 that involved an area south of the demilitarized zone. The attack followed two North Korean ambushes launched on August 10, 1967 that killed three US soldiers.

Camp Liberty Bell Gate
Photo of the Camp Liberty Bell front gate in 1973 via The Advocate website.

The attack on Camp Liberty Bell proved even more deadly with four soldiers dead and many more wounded. In total twenty-six people were wounded in the attack that included fourteen US soldiers, nine South Korean soldiers, and three Korean civilian employees. The United Nations Command made the usual protests against the North Koreans during a meeting a Panmunjom and of course the North Korean communists denied all knowledge of the attack. This attack would be one in a long series of attacks that would occur against frontline forces stationed in Korea in what would eventually come to be known as the “DMZ War“.

August 31, 1967 edition of the Pacific Stars & Stripes.

For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:

A Profile of US Military Bases In Seoul

| May 13, 2008

Introduction

The heart of United States Forces Korea is without a doubt Yongsan Garrison, which is appropriately located in the middle of the city that is at the heart of the entire nation of South Korea, Seoul.

Seoul is a vibrant and massive city with a population of over 10 million people. In the middle of this megalopolis is the expansive USFK camp Yongsan Garrison. To put the location of Yongsan Garrison into perspective imagine a 630 acre foreign military base in the middle of Manhattan in New York. That is what Yongsan Garrison is like.

The camp wasn’t always surrounded by such dense urban sprawl. It was originally constructed as an Army garrison during the Imperial Japanese colonial period of Korea between 1904-1945. In fact some of the older buildings that remain on Yongsan can be dated back to the Japanese colonial period. When the Japanese built the Garrison is was located south of Seoul which was mostly farmland at the time and close to the Han River. The Han River was where boats from the Yellow Sea would travel up to deliver goods to Seoul. This was also convenient for transporting military supplies and personnel as well to the garrison.


Old Japanese brick prison administration building picture via Army-Technology.com.

Interestingly enough the Yongsan area was actually used even prior to the arrival of the Japanese colonial forces as a military area for foreign armies due to its closeness to the Han River. In the 13th century the area was used as a garrison for the occupying Mongolian Army as well as in the 16th century by the invading Japanese samurai as part of the Hideyoshi invasion of Korea. Prior to the Japanese colonization of Korea in the 20th century the area had been used by the Chinese military as well who set up a headquarters in the Yongsan area in 1882. Due to its foreign military history it is easy to see why many Koreans have mixed feelings about the location of US troops at Yongsan Garrison.


Regimental Bachelor Officers’ Quarters; later Imperial Japanese Army Hospital; now JUSMAG-K Headquarters.

During the colonial period, Yongsan Garrison would remain under Japanese control until it was handed over to the United States military with the surrender of the Japanese Imperial Army at the end of World War II. The garrison was used by US military occupying forces until 1948 and after the withdrawal of the occupying force, the garrison was used by the US military’s Korean Military Advisory Group (KMAG) soldiers that advised and helped train the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army.

In June 1950 with the start of the Korean War, Yongsan Garrison was captured in less then a week by the invading North Korean forces. With the September 1950 Incheon Landing Operation led by General Douglas MacArthur, Yongsan would be recaptured by the US military to only be lost yet again a few months later with the Chinese entry into the war. By March 1951 the US military and their allies had recaptured Seoul and Yongsan Garrison once again from the Chinese. Considering the amount of warfare the garrison saw during the Korean War it is amazing how many of the old Imperial Japanese buildings actually survived the conflict.

Today most of the brick buildings seen on Yongsan Garrison date from the Japanese colonial period.

After the Korean War, Yongsan Garrison went on to become the home of United States Forces Korea (USFK), the United Nations Command (UNC), the Combined Forces Command (CFC), as well as the home of Eighth United States Army (EUSA). With such commands that are important both militarily as well as diplomatically, Yongsan Garrison is of extreme importance to both the United States and Korea.

Yongsan Garrison Today

Yongsan Garrison is currently home to over 25,000 US military servicemembers, DOD civilian contractors, and their families. In addition approximately 1,000 Korean Augmentees to the US Army (KATUSAs) serve on the compound along with 3,000 Korean civilian employees. Some of the major units stationed on Yongsan or its satellite camps are the USFK headquarters, 8th US Army headquarters, 18th Medical Command, 121 General Hospital, 175th Finance, Armed Forces Network Korea, Corps of Engineers Far East District, 1st Signal Brigade, and the 501st Military Intelligence to name a few.


8th Army Headquarters on Yongsan Garrison.


Combined Forces Command Headquarters on Yongsan Garrison.

Yongsan Garrison is currently considered one of the top installations in the entire US Army by recently receiving third place in the Army Communities of Excellence competition. The recognition is well deserved considering the excellent facilities on the post. The post is divided into North and South Posts which are divided by a wide Korean public road. In recent years an overpass was constructed over this road to allow vehicles to drive from each side of the garrison without having to exit on to the Korean road.


121 General Hospital image via Wikipedia.

As I said before the facilities on the post are excellent. Yongsan has a very big Post Exchange (PX) and a massive commissary stocked with every type of American food you can think of. The post has most of the popular fast food restaurants as well as fine dining at restaurants located at the four star hotel the Dragon Hill Lodge on south post. The post’s Navy Club also continues to be a popular attraction on the compound. (Update: Navy Club closed in 2015.)


The Post Exchange (PX) on Yongsan Garrison.

An important difference between Yongsan Garrison and most other USFK facilities in Korea is the amount of families that live on Yongsan. Due to the number of families living on the post the installation operates a number of schools and community programs to create a good family environment on the compound. For soldiers stationed in the 2nd Infantry Division without their families it is a strange experience to go to Yongsan and see junior NCOs driving privately owned vehicles and taking their families shopping at the commissary.


Yongsan Apartment Housing.

The majority of the command sponsored families live on South Post or over at Hannam Village. The majority of housing on South Post is in individual homes while Hannam Village is composed of a highrise apartment complex of 1162 apartments that vary between 2, 3, & 4 bedrooms that are a 20 minute walk from Yongsan Garrison. I have heard nothing but good things about the housing on South Post where the majority of senior leadership lives; however I have heard nothing, but bad things about the Hannam Village where mostly junior soldiers live. Not only have I heard and read bad things about the apartments from people who live there, but the Stars & Stripes has reported on it as well.  (Update: Hannam Village was closed in 2014.)

Those that are not housed on South Post or over at Hannam Village are authorized to live in an off post apartment. Off post apartments can be very hit and miss in quality and are notorious for landlord sharks defrauding the military and servicemembers out of money.

Dragon Hill Lodge

One of the key attractions of USFK is without a doubt the Dragon Hill Lodge hotel located on the south post of Yongsan Garrison. This massive hotel opened in May 1990 and was constructed using Morale Welfare & Recreation (MWR) funds raised through soldier programs such as the slot machines in operation on USFK camps in Korea. No Congressional funding was used to construct the hotel and to this day the hotel operates through an MWR program called the Armed Forces Recreational Centers. The Dragon Hill Lodge is one of four AFRC hotels across the globe with the others being in Hawaii, Germany, and Florida.

The hotel has 394 rooms and suites that come with queen size beds, sofas, private bathrooms, DVD players, etc. The hotel also has a number of western style restaurants to include fast food such as Subway and Pizza Hut. My personal favourite is the Oasis Mexican Restaurant that I believe serves the best Mexican food in Korea. The hotel also has a massive exercise and swimming facility for its guests. It is also popular for weddings and other large catered functions.

The Dragon Hill Lodge is rated as a four star hotel and for those staying there it definitely deserves its rating. I have only stayed at the Dragon Hill Lodge on TDY orders and have enjoyed every time I have stayed there. However, the one downside of the hotel is its price. Prices for rooms are based on rank and duty status and the average cost for a room is over $200. There are various reasons for the high prices at the hotel, but for soldiers on leave most can get a hotel room for less then a $100.


The Dragon Hill Lodge on Yongsan Garrison.

Even with the projected closing of Yongsan Garrison by 2012 the Dragon Hill Lodge is scheduled to remain a US military property which will mean that US servicemembers will be able to continue to use this great facility even after it closes.

Camp Kim

Located literally across the street from the main post of Yongsan Garrison is Camp Kim. Camp Kim is known to most GIs stationed in Korea as where the Seoul United Service Organization (USO) is located. Going to the USO is the only reason I have ever personally visited Camp Kim. The USO actually runs an excellent facility at Camp Kim and the best I have seen in USFK. Definitely worth checking out if you are a soldier stationed in Korea.

However, there is more to Camp Kim then just the USO. The camp is also home to the Special Operations Command – Korea (SOCKOR) which is the lone US special forces unit assigned to the Korean theatre of operations. The 1st Signal Brigade Project Support Directorate is also located at the camp. This directorate provides a number of technical and communications support capabilities for USFK.

Camp Kim also houses the Vehicle Processing Center for USFK which provides customer service for privately owned vehicles (POVs) of USFK servicemembers and their families. Finally the Korean Service Corps (KSC) is based out of Camp Kim which is a large organization of Korean civilian workers that provide direct peace time and combat support services to the US military in Korea.

Camp Coiner

On the northern part of the land that encompasses Yongsan Garrison is the small USFK installation of Camp Coiner. This camp was named after 2nd Lieutenant Randall Coiner assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division who was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for actions taken in 1953 during the Korean War near the village of Sokkagae.

Quonset huts on Camp Coiner.  Picture from the Stars & Stripes.

Prior to the US military taking control of the camp from the Imperial Japanese Army, Camp Coiner was used as a garrison for a horse drawn artillery unit. Currently the camp is home to elements of 8th PERSCOM, the 8th MP Brigade, 17th Aviation Brigade, and the 1st Signal Brigade. The camp is relatively small and only encompasses a total of 55 acres.  (Update: In the future Camp Coiner will be tore down and become the location of a new US embassy compound.

Far East District Compound

The US Army’s Corps of Engineers Far East District has been based out of the extremely small Far East District Compound a block from Seoul’s massive Dongdaemun shopping district. The land that the compound was constructed on was originally owned by Seoul National University, but with the outbreak of the Korean War the South Korean government seized the land in order for the Corps of Engineers to start operations from the camp in 1951.

Since then with the economic development of Seoul, the surrounding community has swallowed up the small camp which some citizens of Seoul view as a eye sore. It also has been targeted by anti-US protesters from Hanchongryun that burned a hole in the US flag on the post. Recently the camp has been targeted by protesters angered by not being paid for services rendered while working on the project to expand Camp Humphreys.

The Far East District Compound is scheduled to be handed over back to the Korean government as part of the USFK transformation plan which has led to internal Korean fight between the ROK Ministry of Defense and Seoul National University over who really owns the land. Currently the compound is scheduled to close by 2012 and the land will be sold by the Ministry of Defense to the Korean National Housing Corporation. The camp is 142,000 square feet in size and is estimated that each 10.8 square feet in the compound is worth $85,000. The property is worth hundreds of millions of dollars thus making it quite clear why Seoul National University and the Ministry Defense are fighting over who controls the property.

Camp Jackson

Located in the far northern Dobong-gu suburb of Seoul is the small US military installation Camp Jackson. The camp was named after Private First Class George W. Jackson who was awarded the Silver Star during the Korean War. The camp is one of the smallest in Korea but probably has the prettiest back drop of any camp with the massive granite spires of beautiful Mt. Dobong soaring over the camp.

Camp Jackson used to be home to a field artillery Target Acquisition Battery that was assigned about 100 soldiers on the camp. In 1968 on the slopes of Mt. Dobong outside of the camp a continuing gun fight with Korean soldiers against North Korean infiltrators sent to kill Korean President Park Chung-hee erupted and could be heard from the camp.

Today there is no field artillery unit stationed on the installation and instead Camp Jackson is home to the Wightmen Non-commissioned Officer Academy that trains newly promoted US Army E-5 sergeants in basic NCO skills. Camp Jackson is also home to the very unique Korean Augmentee to the United States Army (KATUSA) training academy. Korea is the one US ally that has a sizable number of soldiers that serve side by side in US units. These Korean Army soldiers are called KATUSAs. The KATUSA program was first initiated in the early years of the Korean War to provide US units with translators and local cultural knowledge. KATUSAs continue to provide these important capabilities along with conducting clerical, driving, maintenance, etc. work within their respective units.

All ROK Army draftees that are selected for the KATUSA program after passing rigorous English language tests must attend the KATUSA academy at Camp Jackson. For all KATUSAs this is their first initiation into serving with US soldiers. The NCOs that train both the NCOs and KATUSAs at the academy are of high quality but unfortunately a sexual assault against a KATUSA trainee mired the school’s image a few years ago. Since then the academy has had a clean record and continues to produce great young NCOs and KATUSA soldiers for the United States Forces Korea.

Camp Jackson is scheduled to be handed back over to the Korean government as part of the USFK transformation plan by 2012.  (Update: The relocation plan to move the NCO Academy to Camp Humphreys has been delayed to 2017.)

K-16

The K-16 airbase is located just south of the Han River in the Seoul suburb of Soengnam. The airbase was actually the old Seoul City Airport which during the Korean War was converted into a full time military base. It received the name K-16 because airfields during the war were given code names. The original name of the base was Seoul Airbase but its codename of K-16 is what stuck and it continues to be identified as K-16 Airbase to this day.

The airbase today is 86 acres in size and controlled by the Korean Air Force 15th Composite Wing who plays host to the US Army’s 2-2 Aviation Battalion and its support units such as the 595th Maintenance Company. The 2-2 Aviation Battalion is equipped with Blackhawk helicopters and only moved to the base in 2005 from their former home at Camp Stanley in Uijongbu. The battalion was moved from Camp Stanley as part of the USFK transformation plan. K-16 also hosts a small security force that is responsible for defending Camp Post Tango located on the base. CP Tango is the primary warfighting center where any contingency on the Korean peninsula would be commanded and controlled from.

The airbase is also the entry and departure point for many VIPs flying to and from Seoul to include the South Korean president and American government officials. However, the thing that K-16 is probably most known for to USFK servicemembers is the nearby Sungnam golf course. The Sungnam golf course is not only popular with US servicemembers but with Koreans as well.

It is important to note that there are no plans to close the airfield as part of the USFK transformation plan to consolidate units around the hubs of Camp Humphreys and Osan Airbase. In fact money is actually flowing into K-16 now with major upgrades to the facilities taking place including brand new apartments for the servicemembers to be housed in.

Camp Market

Camp Market is yet another military installation that was originally constructed by the Imperial Japanese army in the 1930’s as a logistics base for supplies coming through the port of Incheon. Like with Yongsan Garrison, the Camp Market area was handed over to the US occupation troops after World War II. The area was captured by the North Koreans in the opening week of the Korean War and was recaptured in September 1950 with the Incheon Landing Operation. After the landing General McArthur used the area as a logistical base. The camp was lost again in December 1950 with the entry of the Chinese into the war. The camp was recaptured from the Chinese in March 1951.

After the Korean War the area became known as a logistical base for the US Marine Corps and in 1963 the area was given to the US Army which established the Army Support Command (ASCOM) in the area. ASCOM became the main logistical hub for the US military until most of the land and facilities for ASCOM was closed and turned over to the Korean government in 1973. Only the Camp Market area was not turned over and remains a small logistical base for USFK in Incheon.

Today Camp Market is composed of 34 warehouses that has a combined total of 852,495 square feet of storage space to store goods and supplies for USFK facilities. The Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office as well as the Army Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) distribution and bakery is based out of Camp Market to provides products and baked goods to PXs and commissaries across USFK. Approximately 600 civilians work at Camp Market with the vast majority of them being Korean contract workers.

The Future of USFK Facilities in Seoul

As the decades passed in Seoul and the Korean economic miracle took hold of the city, it began to grow at a remarkable rate to where today Yongsan Garrison has been totally engulfed and surrounded by the city. A dense urban environment surrounds the garrison on all sides instead of the farmland that surrounded the garrison when it was first constructed by the Japanese.

This urban development has caused many problems for the US military in Korea because the 630 acres that composes the garrison causes both development and traffic problems for the city of Seoul. The location of the garrison also allows activists groups to easily use the garrison to conduct their anti-US protests at any time.

Recognizing the problems of the current location of Yongsan Garrison the United States military has tried for years to get the base relocated outside of Seoul and has been continually met with South Korean governmental delays to any proposed move. The first proposal to move the garrison was actually initiated back in 1987 with then Korean President Roh Tae-woo. By 1990 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to relocate Yongsan Garrison.

However, in 1993 a new Korean president had come to power, Kim Young-sam who that year canceled the plan move, deeming it to expensive because Seoul was to pay for the cost of moving the garrison. However, it was probably no coincidence that the Korean government also killed the Yongsan move the same year the North Korean nuclear crisis was happening and the nation was on the brink of war with the North Koreans. After war was avoided with the signing of the Agreed Framework talks about relocating the garrison were effectively delayed even further with the onset of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.

Talks to relocate Yongsan did not seriously heat up again until 2003 when US President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pushed the Korean government to relocate the garrison. On January 17, 2004 during the Sixth Future of the Alliance talks, an agreement was struck to relocate Yongsan Garrison to Camp Humphreys which is located about 50 kilometers south of Seoul. A small area of land would remain controlled by the US military at Yongsan to serve as the home for a new US embassy as well as keeping the Dragon Hill Lodge for the use of US servicemembers. The remainder of Yongsan was supposed to be turned into Seoul’s very own Central Park, but business interests and politics may sink this idea.

The original plan was to have the base relocated by 2008. However, technical problems and South Korean governmental delay games pushed the date of the relocation back to 2010, then 2013 and then finally back to 2012. Now there is even attempts by the South Korean government to push the relocation all the way back to 2015. With such governmental delay games being played out it is easy to see that Yongsan Garrison is probably going to be around for many more years to come and I can think of quite a few people who will be happy about that.  (Update: Most of Yongsan Garrison is hoped to be moved to Camp Humphreys by the end of 2017.)

Note: You can read more from the ROK Drop featured series “A Profile of USFK Bases” at the below link:

Comments

 

[…] TChahng: May 12th, 2008 at 10:55 pm […]

In my opinion the 2012 move date will never happen. Years ago I believed all the misinformation being put out by leadership about a 2008 move – not anymore!

Great work GI Korea, nicely written. And thanks for including the FED Compound. Most folks don’t even know we’re here.

Just one correction. The Google Earth image for Dragon Hill incorrectly identifies the building. The push pin identifies the First Replacement Company’s facility, Bldg. 4034 which is across the parking lot from DHL. DHL is actually the large “X” shaped gray roof at the bottom of the image (under the copyrights).

thanks again.

Fred, thanks and you are correct about mislabeling DHL. I was sloppy with the pin mark and have fixed the image. Thanks.

Pete I am at the point now that I won’t believe Yongsan will really move until I actually see it happen with my own two eyes.

Great post. How do you find the time to do these?

And I think you’re right on the final point, Yongsan will likely be a USFK base for the foreseeable future. Any ROK politico with half a brain knows that soon after the U.S. is gone from Seoul and then Korea, either the Chinese or the Japanese will want to establish a foothold. Stability in northeast Asia hinges on stability on the Korean peninsula.

Who can Korea depend upon to be the Hidden Dragon behind her Crouching Tiger? Someday that will be necessary, and I will say, Hell Yes!

These long posts like this one I actually type up as a Word file and leave it saved on my desktop and just slowly add to it over time. Once it is done I just cut and paste it into my blogging program. I have been slowly typing up this Yongsan post for probably about three months.

You forgot CP TANGO…

I too admire how you can keep a fairly steady stream of these posts coming week after week given your busy professional schedule.

I admire the consistency – which I sorely lack. I can only manage to work in heated spurts.

[…] Click here to read more. Click here to return to Korea Click here to return to MySpace News. […]

[…] main logistical support hub at the time and the only remnants of it that remains today is Camp Market.  The story initially develops by following Mike’s interactions with fellow soldiers in the […]

[…] … metacomm.co.kr/forum/USAG%20Humphreys%20Relocation… • Found on Google A Profile of USFK Camps in Seoul May 13, 2008 … The US Army?s Corps of Engineers Far East District has been based …. Camp […]

[…] expect to live in back in the states. Even families that are command sponsored find themselves in Yongsan for example living in the Hanam Apartments which I have often heard referred to as “The Ghetto”. This is a […]

I was in the 135th FST and i served in Korea from 1996 to 1997, i will never forget the team of people i met there, if anyone can read this please email me any jobs that can help our soldiers in the duty. I am a US Army Vet, and i am so proud of the work we did there, we took over Mash, i designed the coin for the 135th FST, I would love to hear from anyone there, it really brings back so many good memories. To all those in 121 GH i miss you all…….

Great stuff. I have a picture of Camp Coiner in my collection that will show how the area looked in 1960. I am sure you can not see any of that big hill now, since the area is all high rises now.

http://www.qsl.net/wd4ngb/cpcoiner1960.jpg

I spent 61-62 at Camp Coiner and going to all signal corps sites to set up our carrier communications deuce and a half. any pics of TV hill Uijongbu, Pyontec

I was with MILPERCEN-K at Coiner in 80-81 and USAGY in 84-85 (and even Camp Stanley in 73-74). If anyone has any photos of these locations during these periods, I’d appreciate the memories.

Station at Camp Coiner, 67-68, looking to conect with others, signal

Stationed at Camp Long Wonju 1973-1974 lookimg for buddie Robert Gambrell stationed Camp long 1972-1973

in 1973 K-16 was little more than the small Air Base and maybe 10 farm houses across the road does CXamp Long still exist where I set up communications van on a duce and a half with generator

I was station at Camp Market. It seems surreal that I spent two years there. I was only required one year, but within the first 6 months I extend my tour for the rest of my enlistment. What a weird place. You could run around the installation in less than half an hour and it was surrounded by large apartment buildings. At times it was a lonely place when everyone left home for the weekend. Once you step outside, it was a diffrent world. It seemed I was the only foreigner walking around on that part of the city. I use to get stared at all the time. Alot of shady deals went down at the commisary and at the “club” or casino. Korean women who were married to officers showed up in their BMWs and load their vehicles with beer and other items they would sell of post. The casino was closed for GI’s at 10pm during the weekend, but oddly you could see the Korean national patrons playing the slot machines with the doors locked. The club manager always kicked me out when I showed up with my camcorder!

I was 1SGT of an MI Co on Camp Coiner in 1987-88 (the Olympics). Great tour of duty, loved Itaewon.

What can you tell me about Camp Grey (not to be confused with Camp Grey Annex), located (previously) in Yongdungpo.

Greatest time of my life spent @ Seoul American High School,,71-74..Those who hated Korea, never really “saw” Korea, the culture shock of the far east and the pre concieved ideas blind some people.

Raul N Aguilar

I’m wondering why it never occurred to me to extend my stay in Korea at Camp Pelham in 1983. Had I known how boring stateside duty was (at least at Fort Ord)I would have spent my whole enlistment time in Korea. I clearly remember that moment on the runway..leaving the country..we all cheered when we heard and felt the rubber wheel lift off that runway when we departed. But deep down I felt sad..feeling like I had just scratched the surface of the experience and yet was leaving and would probably never be there again. I’m so grateful for sites such as this where I can check out the scene there a little bit and see the same sort of sentiments from others who served there. If ESL teaching paid a bit more..I’d probably be heading back now.

For anyone that served in the Seoul area in the 1950s or 1960s the below link may be of interest:

http://rokdrop.com/2012/06/28/filmmaker-looking-to-interview-us-rok-military-veterans-for-documentary/

I think there is a small error about Ascom City in your history. Ascom was indeed a Marine supply point during and for a short time (no pun intended) after the Korean War, but I think it became property of the US Army in early 1954. I went to Korea on my first tour in 1956 on the USS Freeman and we processed through Ascom and boarded unheated trains for Uijongbu. I spent a month in the 121 Evac hospital in 1961 on my second tour and it was indeed at Ascom and I didn’t see a Marine. The Marines withdrew from Korea in either 1954 or ’55 and the 24th Infantry Division took their place. I served with the 7th Div just south of Kumwha.

Richard Sullivan has it right. I went thru there in Feb 1960 also was assigned there July 1962 thru August 1964. It became ASCOM when the seven technical services were combined and consolidated I believe early 1963 to form a depot. I worked on the eventual movement of supplies to Waegwan Camp Carroll before I went to Japan.

Ascom was a supply depot before the Korean War as I was surprised to read on page 509 of Roy Appleman’s “From the Naktong to the Yalu” nearly 50 years ago in his account of the Inchon landing and subsequent liberation of Seoul.

“…During the night of 16-17 September, the 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, occupied a forward defensive position commanding the Seoul highway just west of Ascom City. Behind it the 1st Battalion held a high hill…”

Anyone as rabid about military history as me or someone with just a little curiosity of what happened where they were assigned would find the Army’s official history very interesting.

Ascom was a supply depot before the Korean War thats very true I believe the 24th Infantry Division had it prior to the war but not sure. I actually found a picture showing the Marines moving thru Bupyong Dong about three days ago sent it to my son who was a marine and a avid Korean War junkie. Him and his brother actually lived for a year on that same street while I was in Vietnam.

Sorry Richard your right 24th took it after the war from the Marines my mistake. Sometimes its had to keep it straight in my head. Ha Ha

Ron, I never made a MISTEAK! Where/when were you in Vietnam? I was there also.

1st time was 1965 at the Inventory Control Center down by the docks in Saigon. Then I was at Hq,USARV Long Binh 1968,1969. I was pretty lucky tour wise. Also spent two tours on Okinawa, Panama,Hawaii,Korea (two times) and one year at the Pentagon before I retired.

My 1st tour in Korea was 1960 7th Cav Camp Custer. I recall the 1st meal in Korea while at ASCOM was always a steak. Anytime of the day. Beat that junk on the ship.

I arrived in Korea on 5 January 1965 at Incheon aboard the USS Breckinridge bound for 7th Inf Div at Camp Casey. On Aug. 15, 1965, was transferred to Yongsan Garrison for assignment with the 199th Personnel Services Company. Separated from the US Army as SP5, at the 38th Replacement Co., then stationed at ASCOM/Camp Market on 23 Feb. 1966. Was hired as a temp GS3, Clerk-Typist with the ACofS, G5, Civil Affairs, 8th US Army on May 1, 1966. Thus began my civil service career. With the exception of nearly 3 years (Oct ’81-April ’82 and May 2007 – May 2009) I have lived in Korea and worked as a Public Affairs Specialist or Officer for about 35 years. Retired on 30 Sep 2008 at my last Public Affairs Officer position with the US Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District, California with 41 years of service (included 2 years of active duty). Worked on Yongsan Garrison for most of my life and living in numerous places in Seoul and now living in Yongin, near the Korean Folk Village.
I enjoy living in Korea and probably know more about this nation than I do about the US. I’ve traveled to almost all of the US military installations in Korea in the ’60s and ’70s and less travel in the ’80s, 90s and later.
Enjoy reading the comments and seeing the photos on the web related to our US military presence in the Republic of Korea. Appreciate the efforts of people like you who post these items of history.

I was never a military brat but I lived with my father in Seoul for many years. My dad worked for Dunham and Smith who supplied the military with food stuffs, electrical goods and you name it. So I was familiar with many of the bases. Especially Osan. I am looking forward to going back to Yongsan where I spent many of fond memories.

GI Flashbacks: The 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Incident

| March 18, 2008

A persistent GI myth perpetuated around Korea in the early 2000’s was the dumping of  formaldehyde down a drain on Yongsan Garrison in Seoul in February 2000 by a USFK mortician.  Spectacular headlines were splashed across Korea’s media outlets especially on the internet about how the mortician had exposed the millions of people in Seoul to cancer causing chemicals.  This incident reached such mythical proportions in Korea that the most popular monster movie in Korean history was based on it.

This incident all started when the so called environmental group Green Korea released reports over the internet about the dumping of formaldehyde on Yongsan followed by leading protests against USFK.  Green Korea, a group no one had heard of before, quickly became the darlings of the Korean media.

waterdump2

Here is a press release they released concerning the 2000 water dumping:

Nowadays the U.S army’s toxic fluid dumping to Han-river is main issue in Korea. On February 9th, in the US Eighth Army Mortuary Building, 480 bottles of formaldehyde, used for embalming were dumped in a drain without any detoxification.  It has been confirmed that the US Army has been releasing Formaldehyde for long periods of time into the Han-River.

Mr. Albert L. McFarland after issuing an order to pour these fluids down the drain, was refused by his subordinate on the basis that the drain led to the Han River, and that the chemicals are known to cause cancer and birth defects. Mr. McFarland swore at the soldier, and ordered him to execute the order. Do you know why Mr. McFarland ordered like that? The only reason is that the boxes were covered with dust.

This case was reported to the Headquarters of the Eighth Division in a statement made by the soldier who executed the order.  On July 10th, the Headquarters concluded that, ‘there was no problem if the chemicals were diluted with water’. Formaldehyde is a very toxic chemical. This is the label of the bottle. It was written like this Poison, Can not be made none poisonous.

This case serves as an exemplar for how the US and US military is deceiving, purposefully or not, Korea and its people. They asserted that the American bases in Korea caused no harm or damage to the environment, and that the US military is abiding by US EPA regulations, and that it is environmentally much safer than Korean bases or companies.  However, the fact that the US military is disposing of toxic fluids such as formaldehyde in the Han River, where 10 million people use it for household use, is in itself an outrage and mockery to the Korean people.  [Green Korea United]

These accusations by Green Korea were repeated over and over again in the Korean media with one editorial in the nation’s largest newspaper the Chosun Ilbo asking, “Would they dump toxic chemicals into the Potomac River?”:

These toxic chemicals are widely known to cause cancer and birth defects. The Han river supplies drinking water for over 10 million citizens residing in metropolitan Seoul and its satellite cities. Are Koreans disposable people?

The news is ethically repulsive. Environmentally, the act is destruction-friendly. In psychiatric terms, it comes close to an act of quasi-murder [oh my!].  For, what matters here is the sick mind and attitude that made possible the dumping of the cancer-causing substance. Whether or not the quantity of the discarded was enough to cause cancer is not the issue here.

Notice how this article sounds almost exactly like the Green Korea press release.  It makes you wonder if Green Korea wrote it for the Chosun Ilbo.  Green Korea and their media and political allies demanded the imprisonment of the USFK mortician and even the resignation of the USFK commander.  These sensational headlines also caused widespread public condemnation of USFK in Korea with no one in the media actually interested             in finding out what really happened.  Of course the truth of what really happened that day on Yongsan is of no concern to these people, establishing the mythology is.

Let’s look at what really happened that day.  There was formaldehyde dumped down the drain on Yongsan Garrison in February 2000, that fact is not in dispute.  However, a number of the myths surrounding this fact are in dispute.  The first myth is the amount of chemicals dumped.  Green Korea claims that 60 gallons of formaldehyde was dumped into the Han River when in fact only 20 gallons was dumped.  The next myth are the claims that the people of Seoul were exposed to cancer causing chemicals.  The formaldehyde was diluted first of all by running water, then was processed through the Seoul waste treatment system, and finally through the Nanjido central metropolitan treatment plant along with 1.9 million gallons of other sewage and waste that was processed through these facilities that day.

To further clarify this point let’s look at the man in the middle of this controversy Mr. Albert McFarland.  To this day, this man is the subject of widespread condemnation in Korea with no one reporting his side of the story.  The ROK Drop has come into possession of some documents from the investigation that clearly shows McFarland’s side of the story that further clarifies that the formaldehyde was no danger to the public.  Note that none of the excerpts from the documents I am showing here are FOUO or classified:

waterdump7

waterdump11

waterdump12

McFarland was taking over and trying to clean up the facility he inherited when the prior supervisor had to return to America due to an illness in his family.  Part of the clean up was to dispose of the old formaldehyde.  McFarland decided to dispose of the old formaldehyde the same way he was trained to do it in the United States and has always done it, including his prior assignment in Panama.  This was all done in accordance with prior established procedures.  I guess that answers the question the Chosun Ilbo had if Americans would dump formaldehyde in the Potomac River.  It makes you wonder why the Chosun Ilbo didn’t bother to investigate and find out how US morticians are trained before making such claims?

The rest of the excerpt of this document concerns another myth put out against McFarland that he recklessly put the people who worked under him in danger.  As can be seen in the document an Industrial Hygiene Survey was done prior that rated the mortuary as being of “normal limits” which classifies its workers as not needing protective equipment.  Here is another excerpt from a document that further shows how absurd this claim is:

waterdump8

waterdump9

The next myth is that McFarland made racial slurs towards the Korean workers, once again there is always another side to the story:

waterdump10

Reading through the documents and witness statements it is clear that McFarland does lose his temper and say unprofessional things.  The other Korean witness confirms that McFarland would often call Mr. Kim stupid and another soldier that worked at the mortuary said that McFarland used to call Kim stupid and that he acts like a child and would make off color comments to him.  McFarland was definitely unprofessional in how he spoke to Mr. Kim, but none of the documents supported any claims of racial slurs used by McFarland.

It is clear that Mr. Kim had plenty of reason to dislike McFarland.  Reading through to documents even more discloses that Mr. Kim had even more reason to dislike McFarland:

waterdump1

waterdump2

waterdump3

waterdump4

waterdump5

waterdump6

So McFarland is the new boss and he begins making the employees and soldiers actually do their jobs and not hang out in the commissary all day and is extremely critical of the work they are doing.  It makes you wonder what the two Korean workers were doing at the commissary in the first place, but I’m sure people can draw their own conclusions on that.  Also if we have learned anything from these documents, it is that you don’t want to die while stationed in USFK:

Yes, the hero of the Korean environmental movement is a guy that throws away people’s body parts because he too lazy to put them back in the person’s body.

Obviously Mr. Kim did not like McFarland and preferred the prior supervisor Mr. Pool because he let him hang out in the commissary all day.  It doesn’t take any stretch of the imagination that Mr. Kim saw an opportunity to get back at McFarland when he had him dispose of the formaldehyde down the drain that day.  After disposing of the fluid he contacted Green Korea and staged pictures in the mortuary and then Korean media sensationalized the story.

So why was Green Korea and the Korean media so interested in sensationalizing this incident?  Well let’s go back to that prior Chosun Ilbo article to answer this one:

 “Are they here to defend us? Thanks but from whom?” The answer to the question is in a sense becoming more and more ambiguous and ambivalent in the post inter-Korean summit detente.

Frankly, some Koreans are also scared of the idea of a defense by those who commanded to dump the toxic substance; who murdered many Korean hostesses, the poor souls, who had to sell sex to earn their subsistence; and, who care little about those Koreans suffering from constant bombing exercises like the one in Maehyang-ri. Why are they reluctant to fully disclose the facts about Nogun-ri massacres?  Is the SOFA really a fair arrangement?

This incident happened in February 2000, but didn’t make massive headlines until July 2000.  The first inter-Korean summit between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il happened in June 2000; the public in Korea was delirious with unification fever and perceptions of North Korea changed dramatically from one of animosity to one of a misunderstood uncle.  Today we know that the summit and the follow on Nobel Peace Prize to Kim Dae-jung was bought with a $500 million dollar bribe to Kim Jong-il by Kim Dae-jung.  We also know today that the bribe and follow on aid packages given to Kim Jong-il in the name of the Sunshine Policy went on to expand his military and advance his ballistic missile and nuclear programs to the point that North Korea now possesses a nuclear bomb.

The Sunshine Policy is now recognized as an utter failure, but back then the Korean people thought very differently and this led the anti-US movement in Korea to exploit this change in sentiment by trying to create a perception that the United States was the reason for the continued division of the country and not North Korea.  They also used this incident to demand changes to the US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement which they claim is unfair, which is of course another GI myth.  They used this incident to further their aims which to this day this incident continues to be demagogued in South Korea with continued hatred of Mr. McFarland and claims of US environmental crimes.

So what ended up happening to Mr. McFarland?  Well he was investigated by the military and was the focus of vicious protests against him by Koreans that wanted him tried and jailed.  The investigation found that he did nothing wrong and it was recommended no action be taken against him.  The commanding officer disagreed and ended up suspending McFarland for 30 days without pay probably to appease the Korean public’s anger.  Well as history has shown with the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident, offering sacrificial lambs to appease public anger in Korea does not work.  The demagogues just whipped the masses into more of a fury and used the suspension of Mr. McFarland as evidence that USFK is committing great environmental crimes and don’t care about Koreans.  They continued to protest and make demands that the USFK commander resign.

Then the South Korean Ministry of Justice got involved even though they have no jurisdiction over McFarland since the incident happened on duty and on a US military base which the US-ROK SOFA agreement states is a case that is in US jurisdiction.  McFarland did not attend the trial but was fined $4000.  USFK paid the $4000 fine, probably once again in the hopes of appeasing public anger.  Of course this only encouraged the anti-US movement even more.

Unhappy with the results, the Seoul District court ordered a re-trial.  Yes you heard that right, McFarland was convicted once and since the anti-US groups didn’t like the verdict another trial was ordered.  That is how it works in Korea, it is “rule by law” instead of “rule of law”.  It is this manipulation of Korean law for clearly partisan political purposes, why a SOFA agreement with Korea exists in the first place.

The new trial sentenced McFarland to six months in jail, which was more jail time than a taxi driver that raped a newly arriving American Army private at Incheon airport ever saw because his original conviction was overturned because the US private did not show enough evidence of resisting the rape.

What else is so hypocritical about the protests, anger, and down right demagoguery of this issue is that when Korean companies contaminate the Han River, Green Korea could care less:

It is shocking news that 29 timber companies were found to have released 271 tons of formalin over the past three years into streams feeding the Han River, the main source of drinking water for Seoul and Kyonggi Province.

Formalin is basically a watered-down version of the highly toxic formaldehyde.

The discovery vividly testifies to the futility of the government’s campaigns to preserve water resources and protect the environment. […]

The timber companies have used the chemical to prevent the decay of their products to preserve the original patterns and the quality of wood used to make furniture or flooring.

Although the companies had the financial capability to install facilities for treating the polluted water, they simply did not bother.  [Korea Times]

Lumber companies dump 271 tons of chemicals directly into the Han River with no treatment at all and it is worthy of a brief mention in the Korea Times; a Yongsan mortician drains 20 gallons of formaldehyde mixed with water down a drain that is the established procedure for disposing of the fluid, which then gets processed through not one but two water treatment plants and months of protests occur, an entire nation is brainwashed to hate the mortician Mr. McFarland, he is tried twice and jail sentence give to him, and even a blockbuster monster movie is created to further exploit this myth.  Truly incredible, and yet people wonder why there is a SOFA Agreement in place?

In a bit of poetic justice, in October 2006 it was discovered that a number of anti-US groups including those in the Korean environmental movement like Green Korea were linked to the Il Shim Hoe North Korean spy scandal; not that the people invested in perpetuating this myth really care.

Further Reading:
The Mortician’s Tale – Asia Times
Great Dumping Scandal of 2000 – USinKorea

Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link: 

Comments:

Yo GI Korea… I am curious… Just how much money are you gettin paid from the Japs for all your hard work in slandering South Korea? And I am being real serious here.

Does it bother you that much that you cannot counter the facts I presented that you have to resort to unsubstantiated claims against me?

Instead of claiming slandering why don’t you point it out?

Dada need pacifier…..boo hoo hoo!

Hey…I saw it in the movies. If I saw it in the films, it must be true.

How dare you try to confuse me with facts!!!

But truthfully…nice to read the facts in this case. Long but interesting. Nice job…

Also very disturbing about what was done to the bodies. It does raise some legal questions about the appropriateness of the actions by the mortuary staff before Mr. MacFarland’s appearance and their suitability for their positions if they were disposing of body parts after the autopsy. It also says something for the former boss who allowed the practice. I wonder if family members in the states who had their loved ones undergo autopsies in Korea ever knew about this? We’re talking big time legal suits. I left my heart in Korea might take on new meanings.

One point though… Green Korea was quite active for many years before the Yongsan case. They were involved in the Saemangeum affair which I sided with their views — as well as the Kooni Range closure fight which I didn’t. However, as a whole, I agree that they seem to have an agenda that is slanted towards nailing the USFK.

If my memory is correct Mr. MacFarland was selected as USFK’s civilian employee of the year soon after the incident. But I don’t think he ever went to jail.

Is it also true that fans can’t suffocate you to death during your sleep?

Whatever happened to Mr. Kim? Is he still KGS in same job?

Kalani, I agree the treatment of the bodies is definitely disturbing and I can understand why McFarland was so pissed off about it. This may also provide additional motive on why Kim went to Green Korea and the media to have leverage to save his own skin for obvious incompetence of his official duties. If I was the parents of deceased soldiers processed through that mortuary I would be highly upset about what was going on there.

I looked around Green Korea’s webpage and they have been active with the Saemangeum affair since 1997 however they didn’t start making big headlines until 2000 along with their Kooni Range activities that also became big news in 2000. My opinion is the group is a anti-US front group which has to pick a few non-US environmental issues in order to keep the appearance of being an environmental group instead of the anti-US group that they really are. The fact that the Korean environmental movement was linked to the Ilshimhoe spy scandal only further validates this.

Pete, As far as I know McFarland is still working at the mortuary which I actually find to be a good thing because he obviously cares about the job he is doing and that mortuary is probably extremely squared away right now. As far as being employee of the year I do not know but judging by his efforts to fix the mortuary I wouldn’t be surprised.

He was sentenced to jail but the sentencing was all show because the Korean court system does not have the power to send him jail due to his SOFA status. So the whole conviction was a sham and was nothing more then legal theater for the anti-US groups to bash USFK with.

CPT Kim,

As far as Mr. Kim I do not know what his status is but judging by his documented incompetence in caring for the bodies processed through the morgue as well as his actions in allowing unauthorized pictures to be taken in the mortuary I wouldn’t be surprised if he was no longer working there.

Also just the fact that Mr. McFarland is still working there leads me to believe that Mr. Kim is probably gone because I can’t imagine those two still being able to work together, but like I said I do not know for sure and would appreciate anyone who knows to leave a comment.

Excellent post, GI Korea.

You Know I wonder if, “The Host 2” will be the revenge of Mr Kim?

I also wonder if “The Host 3” will be about the canal and Korea awaking a Soju Godzilla.

Could make for some interesting films.

One other bit of information that wasn’t presented anywhere (that I saw), the effluent from the wastewater treatment plant enters the Han River downstream from any water intake facilities. Yes, it flows into the ocean, not into the Seoul City (or any other city) domestic water distribution system. On the other hand, all the stuff from the lumber industry does in fact enter the river upstream of Seoul and then gets sucked into the Seoul City water distribution system (which supplies water all the way to Pyeongtaek, it’s a huge system).

Oops, not into the ocean, into the West Sea.

Great post, GI Korea. The only improvement would be to find out what Korean hospitals do with their excess formaldehyde, which I suspect is the same exact thing.

But hey, how did Dada ever find out you were on the Japanese payroll? You need better OPSEC.

[…] will go into an uproar about this chemical spill like it did when USFK mortician Albert McFarland poured 20 gallons of diluted embalming fluid down a drain at the Yongsan Garrison mortuary that was processed through two different water […]

USFK made a big mistake allowing the fine to be paid and not stone walling the Korean courts. This was clearly a line of duty infraction, and if don’t repect the SOFA, who the hell will? It set a bad precident and gave credence to the likes of Green Korea.

Also, back in 2000, and for some time after that, the Green Korea site had nothing but USFK-related material on it. I checked the site frequently for a long period of time, and in my memory, the notes about the reclamation project and other affairs not related to USFK or the US Embassy were not put up until months or a couple of years after the dumping incident.

The way it seemed to me based on watching the site and reading up on this years several years ago, Green Korea did as frequently happens in Korean civic groups as it gained in recognition thanks to the press championing it against USFK in 2000 —- it began taking onboard other environmental groups that were already operating before Green Korea became a national figure or were organized afterward. Either way, it seemed clear to me they had affilitated themselves with Green Korea in the typical umbrella fashion of Korean civic groups.

It wasn’t until this expansion that Green Korea really seemed to become a national movement, and from my looking at the site back then, unless I’ve gotten knocked in the head hard between now and then and dreamed all this up, none of the non-USFK, US Embassy stuff was on the site before the group mushroomed.

I do remember they had up one typical base waste oil page up that focused on a ROK installation, but I did not see the land reclamation or any other non-US related stuff in Korean or English when I was watching back then.

As for the new documents, they did clear up one big question I had never been able to satisfy before: how long had Mr. Kim been working for USFK?

When the images were staged of him dumping the chemicals came out from Green Korea, I wondered if he were a new employee and a plant.

The USFK documents seem to clearly show what GI Korea said: it was a classic case of a new boss coming in and taking charge and shaking things up and the old employees becoming disgruntled.

Mr Kim was fired shortly before he went to Green Korea. And yes Albert “Bones” Mcfarland is still around.

[…] How Things Get Stupid and Out of Control Remember back in 2000 when the US was accused of poisoning the water supply in Seoul with formaldehyde? The blog ROK Drop has a very accurate break down of what happened and how the local press was played like a fiddle by these radicals. Take a few mintues and ready this, very enlightening. […]

[…] March 27, 2008 the 2000 water dumpingGI KOREA TELLS IT LIKE IT IS…GREAT POST. I STILLED LIKED THE KOREAN MONSTER MOVIE THAT THIS SO […]

[…] you all haven’t caught on yet, I’m not only accepting bribes from the Japanese, but I am even linked to North Korean spies so says the Sports […]

[…] has decided to quit blogging. (2) If you all haven’t caught on yet, I’m not only accepting bribes from the Japanese, but I am even linked to North Korean spies so says the Sports Chosun. (2) […]

I was stationed at Yongsan from 97-00 and worked a few yards from the old main gate (pre-bridge days). While this was going on the protesters outside the gate (we would watch from the walkover bridge) were shooting rockets and water balloons filled with Han River water over the walls into the office complex area just east of the gate. It was quite a scene, 50 or so people and about 4x that number of “journalists”.

The bigger joke was the fact that every day on my walk to work from Bokwang-Dong (right on the river SE of Yongsan Garrison), I would pass auto repair shops that were draining used motor oil, coolant, and transmission fluid straight into the street or curbside drains – sewer and run-off drains that *did* run directly to the river without the benefit of waste treatment processing.

That’s the nice thing about living in Korea (6+ yrs as of this writing) – if there’s a way to blame your problems on someone else, the gov’t, press, and people will beat that horse until it’s WAAAAAAAY past dead.

[…] no further then the Yongsan Water Dumping Issue, the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident, the GI Crime issue, or the US-ROK SOFA issues.  All these […]

[…] no further then the Yongsan Water Dumping Issue, the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident, the GI Crime issue, or the US-ROK SOFA issues.  All these […]

[…] because demagoguery is the order of the day in Korea because it works. Look no further then the Yongsan Water Dumping Issue, the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident, the GI Crime issue, or the US-ROK SOFA issues. All these issues […]

If Green Korea were a legitimate environmental group, wouldn’t they focus on the substandard environmental standards in Korea, instead of slandering the US Army?

[…] anti-US activity over a variety of issues — The Great Water Dump was the most memorable one (GI Korea’s Review). But, the Koon-ni/Maehyang-ri Bombing Range Saga was also finally picked up by average Koreans. […]

I don’t know why you folks like to downplay the FACT that formaldehyde was dumped down the drain on yongsan and it did make its way into the han river. Irregardless of the quantity, the fact remains the us army was responsible for this dumping. REMEMBER: the us army, air force, navy and marines are here as guests. Dumping chemicals, of any type, into the korean waste/water systems and/or the ground is wrong. Don’t bitch about how the koreans treat their country; it is their country – they can do as they see fit with it. But the us military is a guest here and must follow and OBEY their own rules for environmental issues – or is it just being a hypocrite? like always?

I agree with Huh, I dump lots of chemicals into the drain here in Korea and I mean a lot. Formaldehyde is nothing compared to what others dump. I saw a guy draining his motor oil into the open sewer system. I didn’t say anything because its his country. Again, formaldehyde is nothing and in fact check out the history of formaldehyde’s history used as a preservative in food and beverages.

It’s their country, what nonsense is that? ever hear of an ocean current or something called wind? How about the jet-stream?

Al Mcfarland was voted civilian of the year again.

[…] : http://rokdrop.com/2008/03/18/gi-myths-the-2000-yongsan-water-dumping-scandal/ […]

I’m an engineering student, who uses a lot of chemicals for research. Before saying that they were compliant to the regulations, you should check ‘safety precautions-Waste Disposal’ here. http://www.ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/49for…
They clearly limit the amount of formaldehyde you can dilute and drain one day.

You are citing a fact sheet from Berkley not USFK.

If you read the investigation documents McFarland followed the procedures that he was trained to follow as a mortician to dispose of the fluid because USFK had no established procedures to do so that he could find. So he just followed the disposal instructions on the USFK Material Safety Data Sheets as well as the procedures that he brought with him from his prior duty station in Panama.

What the hell! Are you kidding me? Formaldehyde? Have you seen the stuf f koreans put in the river? They dont care what goes in the river! I fish here in Korea all the time, especially in the HAN. Its absolutely ridiculous how dirty Koreans are. I also metal detect on the beaches and the sh1t I dig up is incredible. When on the beach Koreans just get up and walk away leaving all their trash laying exactly where they left it. Koreans pollute their waterways like crazy and care nothing for the environment. When I first read the article and seen that a organization was claiming to be a GREEN KOREA, I thought, hmm this has got to be some bullshit with some nice NORTH KOREAN funding. Thats all these organizations that are ANTI U.S are, North Korean funded.

Look at the leaders of all the Anti American Protest, Its always the same guys leading and antagonizing the situation. A great recent example was the FTA and the mad cow disease protest near city hall where the korean people beat their own country men and locked down the city hall street for a month, what kind of bullshit is this? Koreans need to get a grip of this media shit and realize when they are being fooled. Heres my solution, if you dont like the U.S in Korea and the fact the U.S has drastically boosted South Koreas economy to become one of the top ten in the world. If you dont like that we stopped the North Koreans from raping and killing your ancesters. If you dont like that Americans are in your country. Well then get the hell out, better yet lets box all the AntiAmerican Koreans up and ship them to North Korea you ungrateful little communist. So what the guy dumped some chemicals down the drain, KOREANS do worse every day, SO what the girls were killed up north by that tank a few years back, LET’S contact the families of all the vets KIA’s MIA’s and WIA’s in the Korea war and get them protesting! I hate these sympathetic waiting in the shadow bastards waiting to pounce or make someone elses life miserable because they want to seem important or got a different agenda! Wake up Koreans and kick the sh1t out of these people! They are giving us both a bad name!

B

Ok, here we go.

What the hell! Are you kidding me? Formaldehyde? Have you seen the stuf f koreans put in the river? They dont care what goes in the river! I fish here in Korea all the time, especially in the HAN. Its absolutely ridiculous how dirty Koreans are. I also metal detect on the beaches and the sh1t I dig up is incredible. When on the beach Koreans just get up and walk away leaving all their trash laying exactly where they left it. Koreans pollute their waterways like crazy and care nothing for the environment. When I first read the article and seen that a organization was claiming to be a GREEN KOREA, I thought, hmm this has got to be some bullshit with some nice NORTH KOREAN funding. Thats all these organizations that are ANTI U.S are, North Korean funded.

Look at the leaders of all the Anti American Protest, Its always the same guys leading and antagonizing the situation. A great recent example was the FTA and the mad cow disease protest near city hall where the korean people beat their own country men and locked down the city hall street for a month, what kind of bullshit is this? Koreans need to get a grip of this media shit and realize when they are being fooled. Heres my solution, if you dont like the U.S in Korea and the fact the U.S has drastically boosted South Koreas economy to become one of the top ten in the world. If you dont like that we stopped the North Koreans from raping and killing your ancesters. If you dont like that Americans are in your country. Well then get the hell out, better yet lets box all the AntiAmerican Koreans up and ship them to North Korea you ungrateful little communist. So what the guy dumped some chemicals down the drain, KOREANS do worse every day, SO what the girls were killed up north by that tank a few years back, LET’S contact the families of all the vets KIA’s MIA’s and WIA’s in the Korea war and get them protesting! I hate these sympathetic waiting in the shadow bastards waiting to pounce or make someone elses life miserable because they want to seem important or got a different agenda! Wake up Koreans and kick the sh1t out of these people! They are giving us both a bad name!

B

[…] degree.  GI Korea has frequently pointed out that Koreans pollute their own rivers, it is only when Americans do it, that it becomes […]

Well…im only 13. And Albert McFarland is my grandpa…its a very long story. And there is a great reason why i havnt met him before. Its great when you try to look up for biological grandpa and all this pops up on the internet. He is really a great guy from wat my mom tells me. And i dont really understand this whole thing but im sure he wasnt trying to harm anyone. All this is stupid. But if anyone happens to know were he is now that would be soo very much appreciated if you would please tell me. And if you knew a way to contact him…that would be greatly appreciated too. I would really like to meet him one day. Its hard growing up without a grandpa.

I know your grandfather, I need to know your email.

blondiechik2015@aim.com

Sorry! Thats my old one my new one is malloryolivia15@aim.com.

I served with Mcfarland. He is not an ethical person. For the record, he misused Army funds when he was stationed in the United States after his Korean assignment. The general at his location offered him the opportunity to retire immediately or face charges. He retired and eventually found his way to his job in Korea.

When I knew him in the Army, he was arrogant, dishonest, and self-serving. He took away from the morale of upright soldiers. This is ironic in light of his past service in much earlier years in Vietnam as a Green Beret.

David M. Color me skeptical.

I can not see Mr Mcfarlands hurt all things concidered he did abandon his own children during VET’Nam war and sighn off on someone adopting the out from under him to avoid child support this is not the actions of a MAN at all he should me tried for crimes against humans and stand a genivea trial.

James Meyer, you do realize your daughter is on here trying to locate a solid man in her life besides her Uncle. I would suggest you keep your dim witted comments to yourself. If you want we can discuss the “actions of a MAN” but I think a public forum is inappropriate.

I searched for instance completely unique, but discovered your web-site! And must say regards. Great study. Will occur back.

[…] the belief – as did his commenter – that Host was an anti-American military movie (covered here by ROK Drop) but I think Mike does an excellent job of explaining his view of why it […]

Life is too hard for GIs in Korea? Here’s an idea: pack up and go home!

Most Koreans want GI bases in the middle of Seoul about as much as Americans want a Korean army base in the middle of Washington D.C.

Seriously. You don’t have to keep blabbing on about harsh and unfair it is for you in Korea. Just go home. That will solve your problem.

Silly Mike…

Educated Koreans want Americans GIs in Korea. Average Koreans don’t really care unless it comes to their attention in a bad way. Agitators complain for other reasons. Korean leaders want to continue the great security deal they are getting. American leaders like to keep America’s influence in the region.

GI Joe would just rather be home with his family, dog and car… but no matter how much he babbles on about harshness or unfairness, nobody is going to allow him to pack up and go home.

You are whining about the wrong whiners.

Mike, guess what, Korea and it’s two seasons (one of which smells like kaka) kind a sucks, as far as being a “country” is concerned.

But the high quality of Korean Prostitutes really helps with the harshness of the winters and smell of the summers.

Let me know when your Men are able to protect Korea. What has it been, 60 years and you still can not defend yourselves.

RETIRED GI and Brandon, foad you wastes of space

A lot of these documents are missing, broken links.

Nevertheless, an argument is never helped by fallacies, such as well, it is harmful but not that harmful that we wouldn’t do it to our own rivers too; or yes it is harmful but Koreans themselves harm their rivers in a lot of ways too (2 wrongs make a right fallacy). And then there’s the boy are they stupid not to realize how lucky they are to have us there to protect them (attacking the source fallacy; also red herring). And finally, it wouldn’t have been a probem if the tree huggers had not needed an issue (unreliable source).

The fact is that harmful chemicals should not be dumped in other countries’ rivers under any curcumstances.

Hello…I was wondering if anyone has Mac’s current email/phone/address? I would really like to catch up with him. I was the US soldier that was working along Kim when this all happened. Mac was a great mentor to me and have nothing but great respect for him. Would love to say Hi. Thanks!

Erin he’s still here, look him up in the global. Don’t really see anyone posting his contact info here.

GI Myths: Is the US Military Crime Rate in Korea Out of Control?

| February 26, 2008

Quiet possibly the most common complaint from Koreans about being host to thousands of American servicemembers is that they commit an inordinate amount of crime and then get away with it because of the “unfair” Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). This belief is widespread and believed by many in the country with no one stopping to ask themselves is it true?

usfk logo

I have even heard from KATUSAs (Korean Augmentees to the US Army) that GIs commit crimes and get away with it because of the SOFA. When I challenge them and others that have made these statements to provide an example of a soldier committing a crime and getting away with it because of the SOFA, they always bring up the 2002 Armoured Vehicle Accident as evidence. I always appreciate them bring up that tragic accident because it is so easy to debunk and makes a great teaching point. The accident in question happened while the soldiers were on duty which clearly states in the US-ROK SOFA that it falls under the jurisdiction of the US military just like the SOFAs the Korean government has signed with nations that host Korean troops.

The American SOFA with Korea is actually better than the SOFAs that Korea has signed with other countries because it allows US soldiers to stand trial in Korean civilian courts for crimes committed while off duty while the Korean SOFAs do not. Some examples of the Korean SOFAs being activated to clear Korean soldiers from being tried in foreign courts include the 2005 shooting of an Iraqi soldier by a Korean servicemeber[i] as well as a 2006 traffic accident that killed a Kurdish political official in Irbil, Iraq[ii]. Each of these incidents were handled by Korean military courts because of the SOFA Korea signed with Iraq. Even more telling is that ROK military servicemembers in Korea do not stand trial for crimes committed while on or even off duty. This just begs the question of if Korean civilian courts are not good enough for their own servicemembers who speak Korean and understand the system, than why should Korean civilian courts be good enough to try US servicemembers who do not understand the system much less even speak the language?

Let me make clear before I move on that I am not advocating for any revision of the current SOFA to exempt American servicemembers from Korean courts. I am only pointing out the sheer hypocrisy of those in Korean society who do want to change the SOFA to be able to try US servicemembers for incidents that happen while on duty when it is something their own military will never agree to, even for crimes committed while off duty.

Despite Korean conventional wisdom that the SOFA allows GIs to literally get away with murder and fly back to America, the truth of the matter is that there is not one reason to blame for why GI incidents occur; GI incidents are a product of simple statistics, the environment in Korea, and leadership. Statistics of criminal activity show that the usual troublemakers are immature, young, male, junior enlisted soldiers. Guess what USFK is primarily filled with, young, male, junior enlisted soldiers. Then these soldiers are thrown into a sleazy “ville” (entertainment areas outside US camps) filled with alcohol and prostitutes; is it any wonder why these soldiers commit the most crimes in United States Force Korea (USFK)? Trouble from this pool of soldiers has happened long before now and will continue to happen in the future. It is a statistical certainty. What is important to determine is the measures taken by USFK to limit incidents from happening and how the USFK crime rate compares to the local population.

When looking at GI crime rates, people need to take a historical perspective on incidents in Korea. Just a decade ago the ville was a much more misbehaved place than what it is now. Back then I was appalled by the conditions in the entertainment districts located outside US military bases. I could not walk through the Dongducheon ville north of Seoul without being approached by multiple prostitutes or seeing a fight break out somewhere. Some of the older soldiers in my unit were stationed in Korea in the 80’s and they told me the ville was tame compared to what I saw then. With the environment that soldiers were thrown into in the ville it should come as no surprise that in prior decades there was much more serious crime occurring involving USFK servicemembers than there are now.

A Historical Look at GI Crime
The USinKorea website maintains an archive of GI Crimes in Korea through published American newspaper reports such as the New York Times and the Washington Post[iii]. The newspaper articles show that there were a number of violent incidents involving US servicemembers over the decades that are truly a disgrace to anyone wearing the uniform, however they also show that since the US-ROK SOFA was first signed in 1966 that US servicemembers have been regularly tried in Korean courts to include even receiving the death penalty. For example the first documented rape that was handled by Korean courts was in 1967, the first murder was handled by the Korean courts in 1968, and the first reported taxi cab related incident was in 1969. The rapes and murders continue through the years and this list is just what the site’s webmaster was able to dig up through published US newspaper reports, imagine how many more incidents happened that were never published. As appalling as all these incidents may be it is also instructive because it shows that the argument that US soldiers can literally get away with murder in Korea and fly home because of the SOFA is totally untrue and has been untrue for decades because all these American criminals that were tried and convicted in Korean courts.

Part of the reason that feeds this perception of GIs getting away with crimes is that in the past the Korean media which was controlled by authoritarian governments would not publish stories about GI crimes fearing that it would harm the alliance between the two countries. As democracy came to the country and the media received increased freedoms, stories about GI crimes began to appear in the news such as the 1992 murder of a Dongducheon bar worker Yoon Geu-mi by Private Kenneth Markle[iv]. Markle had brutally murdered the woman after he found out that she had been with another man the night before. Markle bashed her and then sexually assaulted her with an umbrella and Coke bottle before pouring laundry detergent over the body. The scene was horrific and photographs of the murder spread across Korea and the conventional wisdom soon became that US troops have been doing these types of crimes for a long time and had been getting away with it. However, as I have already demonstrated yes, horrible crimes have happened over the years involving USFK servicemembers, but they were tried and convicted in Korean courts for those crimes; it was just that the Korean public never heard about them. Markle went on to be tried and convicted in Korean court and sentenced to fifteen years in prison, just like the GIs criminals that came before him starting way back in 1967. The only thing that made his case different was that it was widely published.

Reporting GI Crime Today
In the past the Korean media may not have reported incidents of GI crime, but today the exact opposite has happened. Now the media reports the smallest incidents involving GIs. For example just last year a Korean newspaper ran an article about how an American GI brushed a Korean woman with the mirror of his car[v]. Would such an article have ever been published if the woman was brushed by the mirror of a vehicle driven by a Korean? Of course not, but the Korean media will report any incident involving a GI which further feeds the conventional wisdom of out of control GI crime.

Additionally, the proliferation of the Internet has only further added to the perception of surging GI crime. Often times the Internet will be the catalyst to publicize a perceived injustice by a USFK servicemember. For example the 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Incident and the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident were greatly amplified with an incredible amount of disinformation and outright lies on the Internet before the media picked up the story and reported the same disinformation to further inflame the Korean public.

To further add to the perception of out of control GI crime is the sensationalism that the Korean media often adds to the reporting to inflame public anger. The best example of this is the 1995 Seoul Subway Brawl involving four USFK soldiers[vi]. One of the soldiers on the subway patted the behind of a Korean woman with him. A group of Korean males than confronted the American soldier about patting the woman’s behind. The woman explained to the male Koreans that she was in fact the soldier’s wife. After hearing this, the Korean males began to spat on and slap the woman for being married to the soldier. Needless to say the husband and friends intervened to prevent the Koreans from beating the soldier’s wife. However, the story that was published in the Korean media was one of drunk, American GIs sexually assaulting a Korean woman on the subway until confronted by concerned local citizens.

Here is how the Korea Times reported the case[vii]:

“The four went on the rampage in the subway station in May and beat Cho who tried to stop them, causing him injuries requiring three weeks of treatment, the prosecution claimed. They were indicted without physical detention on May 19.”

With a dishonest media narrative such as this, the incident quickly became one that inflamed anti-US sentiment in the country. This belief was only reinforced when the four GIs and the Korean wife were arrested and convicted of assault. Three of the GIs received monetary fines while the GI husband was sentenced to six months in jail while his wife, the one spat on and slapped, received a fine. The Koreans that started the fight in the first place were never even indicted. This is justice in Korea, that I show later in the essay, continues to be practiced to this day.

A year later the GI husband was able to successfully appeal his case and quietly his jail term was reduced to a fine just like the others involved. If the US-ROK SOFA had not been in place at the time he would have been imprisoned in Korean jail the entire time his case was awaiting appeal for an obvious travesty of justice. This case is one of many examples of why the US needs a SOFA with a country like South Korea where a sensational media and rampant xenophobic nationalism often makes any fair trial of an alleged crime by a USFK servicemember difficult.

Another more recent example of an outrageous arrest of USFK servicemembers was in 2002 when three American GIs were assaulted and then kidnapped off a Seoul subway by known anti-US activists.[viii] One of the kidnapped soldiers was taken to a packed college sports stadium and forced to make a coerced statement to the crowd condemning USFK that was broadcast on national television. Then the soldiers were taken to a hospital and forced to apologize to the anti-US activist who attacked them on the subway in the first place. Despite being assaulted on the subway, kidnapped, and then forced to make coerced statements on national TV, the soldiers were then booked by the police for assault.

A travesty of justice doesn’t begin to describe how despicable this case is. Could you imagine what the Korean reaction would be if a mob of US soldiers assaulted three Koreans, kidnapped them on to a US military installation, and then forced them to make coerced anti-Korean statements on the Armed Forces Network? There would be nation wide outrage in Korea, yet when it happens to US soldiers they are the ones charged with a crime. It truly boggles the mind.

As evidence that the railroading of American soldiers in Korean courts continues to this day look no further than the case of PFC Mark Feldman. Feldman was convicted of attempted rape of an off duty Korean policewoman, along with another USFK servicemember SGT Anthony Basel. Basel confessed and was convicted for the crime, but Feldman told police that he was outside trying to catch a taxi while Basel was using the restroom where the attack occurred. The victim did not see Feldman in the bathroom and initially the restaurant owner that broke up the attack did not see Feldman either in his initial sworn statement to police. However, later the police were able to get the restaurant owner to change his statement and were able to arrest and convict Feldman. Additionally the police pressured Basel to write a statement implicating Feldman in order to reduce his own jail time. During Feldman’s trial he was not even given an adequate interpreter to understand what was going on.

When Feldman was convicted the senior judge presiding over the case encouraged Feldman to appeal the conviction because it was so dubious, which he did. After sitting in Korean jail for 113 days PFC Feldman’s conviction was reversed because of lack of evidence and changing witness statements[ix]. Under the pre-2001 US-ROK SOFA, Feldman would have never been in jail to begin with because the old SOFA only sent USFK servicemembers to Korean jail after their appeals process was complete. Since the 2001 revision soldiers are now handed over to Korean authorities before the completion of their appeals process. Yes the SOFA is unfair; it is unfair towards American soldiers not Koreans.

The Statistics of GI Crime
The Korean media and politicians like to play with statistics as well in order to feed the conventional wisdom of out of control GI crime. Often statistics will be released that shows a high USFK crime rate, however the media will inflate the statistics by including such minor offenses as parking tickets to support their claim of out of control GI crime. Left wing Korean politician Lee Young-soon in 2005 released statistics from the Seoul police department that USFK soldiers committed 780 criminal acts over a six-year period and were not held for trial[x]. To sensationalize this statistic even further, the newspaper headline read, “No US Soldiers Held in Hundreds of Crimes”. Of course this statistic was inflated with unpaid parking tickets but the article also made no distinction of whether the soldiers not tried in Korean court were found to have no involvement in the crime by the police or were handed over to the US military for trial for minor crimes. From personal experience I have seen Korean police hand over soldiers for minor crimes such as urinating on a building to be handled by the military justice system so they do not have to prepare all the necessary paperwork to handle a US servicemember case in the Korean justice system. It should come as no surprise that this politician was later linked to a North Korean spy scandal[xi].

So what do the real criminal statistics say about GI crimes in Korea? For example let’s start with the statistics for SOFA status persons convicted of crimes in Korean court in 2007. These statistics are compiled from the ROK criminal court records involving USFK members published every month on the USFK website:

  • Crime Soldier Dependent Contractor
  • Rape 2
  • Sexual Assault 1
  • Assault 11 2              1
  • Bodily Injury 5
  • Larceny 3
  • Robbery 1
  • Drugs 2
  • DUI 10
  • Prostitution 1
  • T.M. Violation           2
  • Totals: 36 4 1

USFK currently has approximately 27,500 soldiers stationed in Korea. This means that .00131% of the population of USFK servicemembers in Korea are the ones causing trouble while the other 27,464 soldiers are minding their own business and respecting Korean law. Further more if the number of USFK servicemembers is divided by the number of incidents the ratio comes out to 1 criminal incident for every 764 soldiers.

This ratio is even further improved when just serious crimes are considered. The Korean National Policy Agency considers Murder, Robbery, Rape, Violence, & Larceny as major crimes when compiling Korean crime statistics. Of these five major categories USFK soldiers committed 23 cases of serious crime. When the USFK population is divided by this number, the ratio comes out to 1 serious crime for 1196 soldiers.

So how does this compare to Korean crime rates? The Korean National Police Agency has 2007 statistics for serious crimes committed by Koreans on their website. The KNPA has arrested 385,704 Koreans for serious crimes out of a population of 49 million Koreans[xii]. Here is how the statistics break down:

  • Crime Number
  • Murder – 1,062
  • Burglary – 3,731
  • Rape – 7,795
  • Theft – 102,688
  • Assault – 270,428
  • Total – 385,704

Korea has a conviction rate of 99% which means that of the 385,704 people arrested that comes out to roughly 381,847 people convicted.  If the total Korean population of 49 million is divided by the number of serious criminal convictions, the ratio comes out to 1 serious crime for every 128 Koreans. As I have just demonstrated the USFK crime rate isn’t just lower than the Korean crime rate, but is significantly lower.

These statistics are even more interesting when compared by individual crime. For example by using the same equation as above, for assaults 1 in every 183 Koreans are arrested for assault compared to 1 in every 1,718 USFK servicemembers. The Korean statistic for rape is much high then the USFK number with 1 in every 6,350 Koreans are arrested for rape compared to 1 in every 9,166 USFK servicemembers. For combined burglary and theft 1 person is arrested for every 181 Koreans compared to 1 person arrested for every 6875 USFK servicemembers. Finally, for murder 1 in every 45,623 Koreans are arrested for murder compared to zero arrests for murder for USFK servicemembers.

These numbers are truly stunning and show how hard USFK has worked in recent years to lower what was already a low crime rate to begin with. The most stunning statistic the last few years has been that no USFK servicemember has been involved with murdering a Korean.

If you look at murders from 1990-2000 there was the infamous 1993 Kenneth Markle murder[xiii] of a Korean prostitute in Dongducheon, followed by another murder in Dongducheon in 1996 of another prostitute by Steven Munique[xiv], then a 1998 murder by Jerome Henrix[xv] of a prostitute in Itaewon, and then the 2000 murder of yet another Itaewon prostitute by Christopher McCarthy[xvi]. Additionally a USFK dependent murdered a Korean man at the Itaewon Burger King in 1997[xvii].

Now compare these murders to the time period between 2001 through 2008 where not one murder of a Korean civilian was perpetrated by a USFK servicemember. In fact a USFK servicemember was more recently murdered by a Korean than vice versa when in 2000 Major David Berry was murdered in broad daylight in Itaewon by a deranged Korean man[xviii].

The Spread of Disinformation
What else is interesting is that the most notorious Korean anti-US group USA Crime has launched a campaign claiming that USFK is releasing mentally deranged soldiers into Korea due to their service in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that they are committing increasing crime in Korea[xix]. The statistics above prove that this is nonsense especially the murder statistics. How does USA Crime explain that during the peace time military before 9/11 that USFK servicemembers were responsible for murdering four Korean civilians, but after 9/11 not one Korean civilian has been murdered by these so called mentally deranged soldiers? They can’t explain it and they won’t explain it either because their sole purpose is to spread anti-US disinformation to the Korean public, which they are very effective at doing. They could care less about the actual truth of USFK crime rates.

It is because of the blatant smears, disinformation campaigns, and subsequent publicity that the Korean public continues to believe that USFK is responsible for an inordinate amount of crime in Korea. This perception problem has caused a command environment within USFK where commanders are trying to prevent every incident when preventing all incidents is statistically impossible. There is approximately 40,000 USFK servicemembers, contractors, and family members in Korea. Is there a town of 40,000 people in either the US or Korea with no crime?

Conclusion
The USFK attempt to create a crime free utopia is statistically impossible. In order to create this utopia, a curfew is implemented, the battle buddy policy exists, the loss of driving privileges for most of USFK service members was enacted, blood alcohol content (BAC) regulations in the 2nd Infantry Division were implemented, certain areas of Korean cities are put off limits, along with a host of other regulations to limit the amount of incidents involving USFK servicemembers.

All these regulations greatly effect soldier life in Korea which effects morale and has the side effect of creating a negative perception of Koreans because everyone knows these restrictions are enacted on them because of a general Korean public that believes GIs are out of control criminals. This perception will not change until the Korean media stops reporting every Korean brushed by a USFK servicemember’s car mirror as well as the media stopping the sensationalizing of major USFK crimes without providing context of how the USFK crime rate is significantly lower then the Korean crime rate.

The Korean media is only going to change the way they report when USFK and the American government begins to vigorously defend the rights and reputations of American servicemembers stationed in Korea. Korea has a long pattern of arrests of GIs, such as the 1995 subway incident that are driven solely by xenophobic nationalism. When these incidents happen why are American politicians and media silent while US soldiers are being railroaded through Korean courts? As long as America’s political leaders and media continues to be ignorant of the treatment of USFK servicemembers on the peninsula, cases of nationalistic xenophobic prosecutions will continue for little regard of whether the soldier is guilty or not simply to appease the masses in Korea that desperately want to believe GIs are out of control criminals despite all evidence that says otherwise. Just because Korean authorities are more concerned with appeasing the masses instead of rendering justice doesn’t mean our political leaders should be as well. USFK servicemembers deserve better than this.

________________________________________________

Note #1: I would appreciate if everyone DIGG this story by clicking here and if you have a blog to link to this posting. The internet is filled with disinformation about USFK GI crimes and I want to get this posting pushed up the Google page rankings as much as possible to combat the high level lies and propaganda on the Internet that only continues to feed the perception of out of control GI crime in Korea. Thanks.

Note #2: This posting has been updated with the latest 2007 KNPA criminal statistics and adjusted to reflect a 99% ROK criminal conviction rate.

[i] “Korean Soldier Accidentally Killed Iraqi”, Chosun Ilbo, 13 April 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504130032.html

[ii] Jung Sung-ki, “Kurd Official Killed in Traffic in Erbil”, The Korea Times, 02 February 2006, http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2006/2/kurdlocal98.htm

[iii] USinKorea Site, http://www.usinkorea.org/crimes/, accessed 14 February 2008-02-14

[iv] “Former GI Convicted of Murder Released from South Korean Prison Early”, Stars & Stripes, 29 October 2006, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=40120&archive=true

[v] “Woman Demands Justice for Hit & Run Accident”, The Hankyoreh, 27 June 2007, http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/218697.html

[vi] Nicholas Kristof, “Subway Brawl Inflames Issue of GI’s in Korea”, New York Times, 24 August 1995, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEED81430F937A1575BC0A963958260

[vii] “US Sergeant Involved in Subway Brawl in May Given 6 Month Jail Sentence”, Korea Times, 22 December 1995

[viii] UsinKorea Site, http://usinkorea.org/issues/subway/, accessed 07 February 2008

[ix] Jimmy Norris & Hwang Hae-rym, “Soldiers Jailed in Attempted Rape of South Korean Policewoman Freed”, Stars & Stripes, 16 January 2008, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59127&archive=true

[x] “No US Soldiers Held in Hundreds of Crimes”, Chosun Ilbo, 26 September 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200509/200509260010.html

[xi] “Prosecutors Accuse 5, Including American of Spying for North Korea”, USA Today, 08 December 2006, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-12-08-korea-espionage_x.htm

[xii] Korean National Police Agency, http://www.police.go.kr/eng/index.jsp, accessed 14 February 2008

[xiii] “Former GI Convicted of Murder Released from South Korean Prison Early”, Stars & Stripes, 29 October 2006, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=40120&archive=true

[xiv] USinKorea Site, http://www.usinkorea.org/crimes/1996_murder/, accessed 14 February 2008

[xv] USinKorea Site, http://www.usinkorea.org/crimes/1998_murder/, accessed 14 February 2008

[xvi] “US Soldier Guilty of Sex Killing”, BBC, 16 June 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/793426.stm

[xvii] Terri Weaver & Hwang Hae-rym, “South Korean Murder Victim’s Family Wins Settlement”, Stars & Stripes, 21 January 2006, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=33581&archive=true

[xviii] “US Strengthens Safety for Its Troops in South Korea”, CNN, 19 July 2000, http://edition.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/east/07/18/skorea.us.military.ap/

GI Myths: The Unfair US-ROK SOFA Agreement

| February 21, 2008

Introduction

A myth in Korea that is persistently held by many in Korean society no matter how discredited it is, is the belief that Korea has signed an unfair Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States. A SOFA is a document signed between the US and the host country of US military personnel in order to clarify each side’s rights and responsibilities in regards to a variety of issues that arise with the stationing of US troops in a foreign country.

korea us flag image

A SOFA between different nations is never the same because each nation has different legal and political systems that influence the way in which a SOFA is written. For example in the United States people expect that someone accused of a crime should have the right to remain silent and have access to lawyer. It is important to realize with Status of Forces Agreements, that unlike civilians, troops are ordered to go overseas. Since troops are under orders they are owed the legal protections they would find in the United States. Ambassador Thomas Hubbard summarizes this best, “we sent them under our system, and we owe them those protections.”[i]

Not all countries the United States has troops in respect these rights. For example the SOFA between the US and Japan allows the military to hold servicemembers accused of crimes until they are indicted by a Japanese court, to which then they are handed over to Japanese authorities[ii]. The holding of a servicemember prior to indictment is to protect their rights to remain silent, not to have coercive interrogation tactics used against them[iii], and have access to a proper lawyer, which is not something readily available to them if held by local Japanese authorities[iv]. It is legal differences such as this that make detailed status of forces agreements necessary.

The US-ROK SOFA

Like all other nations that hosts US troops, Korea has its own SOFA in regards to the stationing of United States Force Korea (USFK) personnel in the country[v]. Here is how USFK summarizes it responsibilities under the US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement:

The SOFA sets forth each nation’s responsibilities with respect to many subjects, including facilities and areas used by U.S. forces, entry and exit of U.S. personnel, customs, taxation, criminal jurisdiction, claims procedures, health and sanitation, use of utilities and USFK’s employment of Korean citizens.

The SOFA applies to members of the U.S. armed forces, civilian employees, invited contractors, technical representatives and their dependents. Civilian and military personnel of the U.S. Embassy and JUSMAG-K enjoy privileges under the SOFA, but are covered by separate agreements with the ROK government.

SOFA-status personnel are obliged to respect the laws of the ROK and abstain from any activity inconsistent with the spirit of the agreement and, in particular, from any political activity. In some cases the SOFA supersedes or abridges Korean law. For example, active-duty military personnel are exempt from passport and visa requirements and SOFA-status personnel are exempt from Korean taxes on wages and salaries paid by the U.S. government. […]

The SOFA also fully acknowledges the ROK government’s right to exercise criminal jurisdiction over USFK personnel accused of violating Korean laws. Accused military personnel may be placed in ROK custody upon indictment in serious cases, and the ROK may retain custody upon arrest in some of the most serious murder or rape cases. Civilians may be placed into ROK custody if the charges are serious and their presence for trial cannot be guaranteed.[vi]

The original SOFA was established in 1966 and has numerous revisions over the years with the most recent revision coming in 2001 that take into account the maturation of the Korean legal and political systems, which leads to the transfer of more rights and responsibilities to the Korean government.

However in Korea the SOFA has become a very convenient issue for the anti-US movement in the country to demagogue in order to create anti-US sentiment within the general Korean population. Like many of their other misinformation operations in Korea, the anti-US groups have succeeded in creating a widely held belief in the country that US servicembers can literally get away with murder and there is nothing the Korean government can do to stop them.

The 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Scandal

One of the more recent and well known attempts to pass off this disinformation to the general Korea public was with the 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Scandal where a USFK mortician ordered 20 gallons of formaldehyde to be disposed of down a sink in the mortuary. The formaldehyde was of no threat to the public because it was diluted with water and passed through two different water treatment plants before the wastewater was discharged into the Han River[vii]. Despite these facts the anti-US groups in coordination with their media allies were able to launch ferocious anti-US protests over this issue claiming that USFK was intentionally poisoning the Seoul city water supply and exposing everyone in the city to cancer. These groups distorted the amount of chemicals poured as well as the fact that they could not cause any cancer because they passed through two different water treatment plants.

waterdump2
Korean activists protest the dumping of formaldehyde by a USFK mortician.

These were inconvenient facts that were simply ignored. The anti-US groups also demanded that the USFK mortician be tried in a Korean court even though under the SOFA he was legally not eligible to fall under Korean jurisdiction since his alleged crime happened on duty. According to the US-ROK SOFA, all crimes committed on post or while on duty anywhere in the peninsula fall under USFK jurisdiction. Any crimes committed off a US military facility while the servicemember was off duty falls under Korean jurisdiction. The case of the mortician did not meet either criteria. Despite this the mortician was tried in absentee in a Korean court and fined. USFK actually paid the fine, but the anti-US groups were not happy with the fine and demanded a re-trial. Thus the Korean courts re-tried the case even though they had already reached a verdict. In the re-trial the mortician was sentenced to six months in jail, which was a longer sentence than what a child molester in Korea would receive[viii]. This was all because of the Korean court’s attempt to appease public sentiment instead of holding a fair trial to render justice.

This issue gave the anti-US groups a platform to bash the US-ROK SOFA, but if anything this issue only demonstrated to the United States why the nation needs a SOFA with Korea in the first place, to protect US servicemembers from politically charged trials. Even more telling is that Korean logging companies that were caught dumping 271 tons of lethal chemicals directly into the Han River without passing through any water treatment plant were simply fined with no one receiving jail time yet the USFK mortician is sentenced to jail[ix]. Such hypocrisy in the Korean courts and subsequent bashing of the US-ROK SOFA is not uncommon in Korea and the greatest example of this is the aftermath of the 2002 armoured vehicle accident.

2002 Armoured Vehicle Accident

On June 13, 2002 a USFK armoured vehicle struck and killed two thirteen-year-old Korean schoolgirls walking to a friend’s birthday party. The incident was clearly a tragic accident that led to apologies from every commanding general in USFK, the US Ambassador to Korea, and even President George Bush himself. In accordance with Korean law USFK payed over $150,000 to each of the effected families in compensation for their loss. Additionally $22,000 was raised for the two families through a candle light vigil fundraiser held by US soldiers after the accident and another $30,000 was eventually raised by US soldiers to fund a memorial for the two girls.[x]

Despite all of this, the anti-US groups were able to very successfully portray this accident as an act intentionally committed by US soldiers and that they were exempt from Korean justice because of an unfair SOFA. This perception only grew when the two soldiers were acquitted of negligent homicide charge after the conclusion of a military court martial. The USFK Commanding General Leon LaPorte felt that a military court martial could be used to disclose all the facts in an open setting to show the Korean public that this was simply a tragic accident. General LaPorte however unintentionally fed the frenzy because the perception of a court trial in Korea is very different from what Americans perceive trials to be in the US.

In the US defendants are presumed innocent and trials are held to have an open debate about the facts of the case with a verdict rendered by either an impartial judge or jury. In Korea when someone goes to trial, they are already presumed guilty; the only question to be found out during the trial is how guilty that person is. So when the two soldiers were acquitted, the Korean public took it to mean a cover up by the US military because if they were not guilty to begin with than why put them on trial? This belief of a cover up by USFK validated many people’s feelings of why the SOFA with the US must be changed so Korean courts can try soldiers who commit crimes while on duty.

After the not guilty verdict, anti-US groups and their media allies were able to feed this perception of a cover up and injustice by making claims that US soldiers regularly avoid Korean courts by claiming on duty status. Others even claimed US soldiers were never tried in Korean courts at all because of the unfair SOFA. However, US soldiers have actually been regularly tried in Korea courts since the 1960’s with some even receiving the death penalty[xi]. With such information easily available to those willing to look for it, it was incredible to see how the Korean media would simply avoid such inconvenient facts in their reporting.

Legal Status of ROK Military Servicemembers

The most hypocritical aspects of the anti-US groups and the Korean media’s claims of an unfair SOFA is that servicemembers in the Korean military are not subject to civilian courts whether they commit a crime on or off duty. For example, four young Korean males attacked and stole two K2 assault rifles from two on duty Korean soldiers. The gang was not able to get any ammunition for the rifles until one member of the gang stole ammunition from his ROK Army unit while conducting his annual reserve training. The gang used the weapons to execute a bank robbery in 2002 where they stole over $11,000[xii]. When the gang was apprehended by authorities, all four of the gang not just the reserve soldier who committed a crime while on duty were tried in a ROK Army court martial.

Another more recent example is when in 2007 a South Korean man struck two patrolling South Korean Marines with his truck and then assaulted them with a knife, killing one of them and then fleeing with their weapons and grenades. A manhunt ensured for the killer and he was eventually apprehended a week later. However, even though he was a civilian he was handed over to the Korean military to be tried by a military court martial[xiii]. The fact that ROK military personnel never stand trial in Korean courts and the fact that civilians can be forced to stand trial in a military court martial is an inconvenient fact that many Koreans would rather not acknowledge. A USFK servicemember on the other hand is subject to Korean civilian court for any crime committed while off duty. With the differences in jurisdiction between the Korean and American militaries, it makes you wonder if the Korean civilian judicial system is not good enough for the Korean military than why should it be good enough to try American soldiers in? This is an inconvenient fact that is left unaddressed by the anti-US groups and their media allies

Korean Media Disinformation

This avoidance of inconvenient facts would continue long after the 2002 accident. A year after the tragic 2002 accident, a USFK servicemember was involved in a DUI hit and run that killed a Korean woman. The servicemember was handed over to Korean authorities and put on trial in Korean court. A Korea Times headline about the trial of the USFK servicemember read, “First US Soldier to be Tried in Korean Court”[xiv]. What is quite ironic about this article is that the first GIs tried in Korean court was in 1967 when an airman was tried for arson and assault [xv]. In the article covering the rape convictions the newspaper said, “This is the first case which the Republic of Korea has exercised criminal jurisdiction over an American serviceman”.  Nearly 40 years later and the media is making the same claims.

Later on other incidents that happened between GIs and Koreans that were ultimately handled by Korean courts would be covered in the Korean media with passages that would say, “However, many U.S. soldiers have evaded the South Korean jurisdiction by citing their exemption from the SOFA clause by claiming on-duty status.”[xvi] This claim in the years after the 2002 accident was made repeatedly in Korean newspapers in regards to incidents with GIs. I e-mailed the newspapers that made these proclamations to substantiate their claim by providing one example of when a soldier was off duty and claimed to be on duty to avoid prosecution in Korean court, I did not receive one reply back.

Probably the most stunning hypocrisy of the SOFA criticism is the fact that the Korean military has status of forces agreements with every nation that is host to South Korean military personnel. In every one of these SOFAs, the ROK Army has primary jurisdiction of crimes committed by their soldiers both on and off duty. A couple of recent examples of when the ROK military’s SOFA was activated were both in Iraq and involved the deployment of the ROK Army’s Zaytun Division outside the Kurdish capitol city of Irbil. In the first case a South Korean soldier was playing with his rifle when an accidental discharge killed a nearby Kurdish soldier[xvii].

The SOFA was activated and the Korean soldier was handled by a ROK military court martial. In 2006 a Korean soldier driving a military truck was involved in a traffic accident where he caused the death of a 53 year old Kurdish politician. Once again the South Korean military activated their SOFA. This is what Colonel Ha Du-cheol told reporters after the accident, “The traffic accident occurred in the line of duty, so we are seeking ways to compensate the victim’s family.”[xviii] Sound familiar? It should because it is the same thing the US military did after the 2002 armored vehicle accident, which everyone demanded SOFA revisions for, however when a nearly identical situation happens with a Korean soldier it receives a small passage in the newspaper and no righteous indignation from anyone complaining about an unequal SOFA between Korea and Iraq.

The Korean military has never allowed one of their soldiers to be tried in a foreign host nation’s civilian courts, which shouldn’t be surprising considering that Korean soldiers do not even stand trial in civilian courts in their own country. Despite all of these inconvenient facts the anti-US groups and their media allies have the nerve to condemn USFK for an unfair status of forces agreement. The hypocrisy is really quite stunning.

US Camp Pollution Claims

In recent years the claims of GIs getting away with crimes in Korea because of the SOFA have become more muted probably because of the sheer hypocrisy of it has become too evident as I noted. Instead the anti-US groups and their media allies have decided to shift their focus back on to so called USFK environmental crimes. This logic is a recycle of the anti-US tactic used in 2000 in regards to the Yongsan Water Dumping Scandal. However, this time the anti-US groups were not making claims that USFK is poisoning the Seoul water supply, but rather that the bases USFK was closing down and handing back to the Korean government were grossly polluted and a threat to their surrounding communities. USFK was handing back the bases as part of a USFK transformation plan made between the United States and the Republic of Korea that would see all 2nd Infantry Division bases in the north of the country and Yongsan Garrison in Seoul closed down and consolidated on an expanded Camp Humphreys base south of Seoul.

This agreement was made in compliance with the SOFA, and the ROK government stated that the Korean government would receive all the USFK land “as is”.[xix] This is because in the SOFA it states that USFK is “not obliged … to restore the facilities and areas to the condition they were at the time they became available to the U.S. armed forces, or to compensate the government of the ROK in lieu of such restoration.”[xx] The reason for this is because the ROK government is receiving 33,000 acres of prime real estate with many modern buildings and amenities already constructed on them. For example when Yongsan Garrison in the heart of Seoul is closed out, the Korean government will be receiving 615 acres of land, nearly the size of New York City’s Central Park, right in the middle of a city with some of the world’s highest real estate prices. Plus the Korean government will be receiving at no costs modern facilities on the camps such as the brand newly refurbished hospital on Yongsan Garrison[xxi]. Any costs in regards to cleaning any pollution on handed over USFK camps can easily be covered with the profits the Korean government is sure to make from the sale of the acquired USFK land.

hump4
Korean activists protest the expansion of Camp Humphreys.

Once again the claims that the environmental clauses in the US-ROK SOFA are unequal compared to SOFAs the US has with Japan and Germany are totally unfounded as well. For example when the US closed camps in Germany the US was responsible for cleaning any environmental damage on the closed camps. This is a fact that the anti-US groups like to trumpet to claim that the US-ROK SOFA is unfair, however what they don’t tell people is that the German government was responsible for buying back all the facilities built on the camps. The money the US government received from the German government to buy back the facilities was more than enough to cover the environmental clean up associated with closing the camps[xxii]. In the US-ROK SOFA the Korean government receives all the facilities on the camp free of charge. For example the renovation and added wing to the Yongsan 121 General Hospital that the Korean government will receive free of charge cost USFK $39 million dollars. The cost savings the Korean government will receive from conducting an environmental clean up compared to paying to receive all the USFK facilities will be enormous.

Likewise the anti-US groups will also not mention the environmental provision in the US-Japan SOFA. In this SOFA the US has no responsibility to clean any environmental damage when handing over closed out bases. The Japanese government bears all the costs in cleaning the returned land[xxiii].

Unequal SOFA Claims

Finally another common claim is that Korea has an unequal SOFA with the United States compared to the one the US currently has with Japan or Germany. As I have already shown in regards to environmental regulations, this claim is totally bogus, however the rhetoric does have a grain of truth to it, but the vast majority of the people making the claims have no idea what they are talking about[xxiv]. Both SOFAs with Japan and Germany are reciprocal meaning that German and Japanese servicemembers have the same rights granted to them while in the United States as American servicemembers have while stationed in their respective countries.

The US-ROK SOFA however is not reciprocal and this is because Korea does not have permanently stationed troops in the United States while Japan and Germany do. The Germans and the Japanese have air defense soldiers stationed on Ft. Bliss, Texas for example. The Germans even have their Luftwaffe flight-training center located just outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico. South Korea on the other hand does not have permanently stationed units in the US and ROK military soldiers that do travel to the United States are usually soldiers there to attend training. International soldiers who attend US military training schools fall under a separate status of forces agreement.

This is the only reason how the SOFAs between these nations are unequal, but the common people who make the unequal SOFA claims think that Japan and Germany have greater rights over American servicemembers than Korea does when in fact the opposite is true. The latest SOFA revision in 2001, before the armored vehicle accident, gave Korean authorities the right to hold US servicemembers before their trials. In comparison to the US-Japan SOFA there is nothing written that says that the US has to hand over servicemembers to Japanese authorities before being indicted. However, the perception in Korea exists that the agreement does allow Japan to take custody of US servicemembers before a trial because the US military often hands over servicemembers suspected of serious crimes to the Japanese authorities as part of a gentleman’s agreement. When one views the US-ROK SOFA without an agenda, it is quite clear that it is not unfair compared to the over 80 other SOFAs the US has signed with other nations that host US troops[xxv].

Conclusions

If people in Korea want to complain about unfair status of forces agreements they can start with the agreements their own military has signed with foreign nations. As I have clearly demonstrated the US-ROK status of forces agreement is much more fair than agreements Korea has with other nations that host Korean troops. I have also demonstrated that the US-ROK SOFA is just as, if not more fair to the Republic of Korea than similar agreements signed between the US and with Japan and Germany.

The fact of the matter is that the anti-US groups and their media allies could care less about how fair the US-ROK SOFA really is. The anti-US groups find an issue that will appeal to the wider Korean public and then the groups demagogue the issue by only presenting facts that support their side of the story while ignoring all the other evidence that says otherwise. Their media allies than spread this disinformation around the country without challenging the veracity of the claims. These anti-US groups manipulate issues such as the US-ROK SOFA in order to create increased anti-US sentiment in the country as well as drive a wedge in the US-ROK alliance.

Past political leaders in Korea would not show any leadership in exposing the untruthfulness these groups’ claims and often time were complicit in their activities. With all this misinformation being passed to the public is it any wonder why the average Korean has such a skewed view of the US-ROK SOFA when all they are fed by the Korean media is one-sided propaganda?

 Endnotes

[i] Ambassador Thomas C. Hubbard’s KBS-TV “Sunday Analysis”, http://seoul.usembassy.gov/19_jan_03.html, accessed 07 February 2008

[ii] US-Japan Status of Force Agreement, http://www.niraikanai.wwma.net/pages/archive/sofa.html, accessed 07 February 2008

[iii] Manabu Kimura and Yuichiro Nakamura, “Interrogation Methods Questioned”, Daily Yomiuri, 26 January 2008, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080126TDY03304.htm

[iv] David T. Johnson, The Japanese Way of Justice, (Oxford University Press – 2002), pg 83

95% of lawyers in Japan never bothered to attend their client’s interrogation , 2/3rd of lawyers in Japan never recommended that their clients remain silent, and 3/4th of Japanese lawyers never asked a judge to have the prosecutors release evidence. The book’s list of Japanese defense lawyers colluding with the prosecution is extensive.

[v] US-ROK Status of Forces Agreement, http://www.shaps.hawaii.edu/security/us/sofa1966_1991.html, accessed 07 February 2008

[vi] United States Force Korea Website, http://www.usfk.mil/usfk/welcome/sofa.html, accessed 07 February 2008

[vii] David Scofield, “The Mortician’s Tale”, Asia Times, 28 January 2004, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FA28Dg02.html

[viii] David Scofield, “The Mortician’s Tale”, Asia Times, 28 January 2004, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FA28Dg02.html

[ix] “Dumping of Toxic Chemicals into Streams”, Korea Times, 03 November 2003, http://search.hankooki.com/times/times_view.php?term=han+timber++&path=hankooki3/times/lpage/opinion/200311/kt2003110317083811300.htm&media=kt

[x] US Embassy Seoul, http://seoul.usembassy.gov/june13acc.html, accessed 07 February 2008

[xi] “South Korea, Sentences to US Soldiers to Death”, New York Times, 04 December 1970, http://usinkorea.org/crimes/5_dec_1970_1.JPG

[xii] Robert Neff, “Gun Toting Robbers Set Sights on Korean Banks”, Oh My News, 17 November 2006, http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=327489&rel_no=1

[xiii] T.D. Flack & Hwang Hae-rym, “South Korean Indicted in Murder of Marine”, Stars & Stripes, 12 January 2008, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59037&archive=true

[xiv] Byun Duk-kun, “First US Soldier to be Tried in Korean Court”, Korea Times, 15 December 2003

[xv] USinKorea Site, http://usinkorea.org/crimes/12_22_1967.JPG, accessed 07 February 2008

[xvi] Korea Herald, http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/07/18/200507180024.asp, accessed 07 February 2008-02-07

[xvii] “Korean Soldier Accidentally Killed Iraqi”, Chosun Ilbo, 13 April 2005, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504130032.html

[xviii] Jung Sung-ki, “Kurd Official Killed in Traffic in Erbil”, The Korea Times, 02 February 2006, http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2006/2/kurdlocal98.htm

[xix] Teri Weaver, “97 Percent of Yongsan Garrison will be Turned Over to South Korea As Is”, Stars & Stripes, 21 December 2004, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25240&archive=true

[xx] T.D. Flack, “USFK: Total of 33,000 Acres to be Returned to South Korea”, Stars & Stripes, 16 July 2006, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=37742&archive=true

[xxi] Teri Weaver, “USFK Opens New Wing at Yongsan’s 121 General Hospital”, Stars & Stripes, 23 January 2005, http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25790&archive=true

[xxii] LTC Park Kwang-ok, “Misunderstandings and Truths on Return of US Bases”, Defense Daily, 21 July 2006, http://www.usfk.mil/org/fkpa/News/newsArchive.asp?id=120

[xxiii] LTC Park Kwang-ok, “Misunderstandings and Truths on Return of US Bases”, Defense Daily, 21 July 2006, http://www.usfk.mil/org/fkpa/News/newsArchive.asp?id=120

[xxiv] David Steinberg, Korean Attitudes Toward the United States (M.E. Sharpe, 2005), pg 201

[xxv] US Embassy Korea Webpage, http://seoul.usembassy.gov/june13acc.html, accessed 07 February 2008

Soldiers Rescue Passengers from Vehicle Accident

| January 18, 2008

The Korean netizens and anti-US groups will assuredly keep talking about these two soldiers, but I can guarantee you won’t hear them talking about these soldiers:

Two 2nd Aviation Regiment soldiers traveling on a snowy highway last Friday said they reacted automatically when they spotted a car wrapped around a telephone pole with one bloody passenger hanging out a window.

“We have to stop, was the first thing Staff Sgt. Kimberly Veal, of the regiment’s Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Attack), told the driver, Pfc. Bradley Herron, of the same unit.

They found three others in the car: one dead, another injured and another who appeared unhurt.

During a phone interview Monday, both Herron and Veal said they were shocked to see people driving past the crumpled car without stopping to offer help. [Stars & Stripes]

No one stopping to offer help at the scene of an accident?  I’m shocked I tell you.  Anyway make sure to read the whole thing because these soldiers did go above and beyond the call of duty trying to aid the people trapped in the vehicle. Great job by these two soldiers.

Policewoman Rape Case GIs Released By Korean Authorities

| January 17, 2008
By on January 16th, 2008 at at 2:42 am

Policewoman Rape Case GIs Released

UPDATE: ZenKimchi has more K-blog reaction to the verdict and you can read Marmot’s reaction in the comments section, but both are critical that he got off because he was drunk.  Not only was he drunk but there was plenty of other mitigating circumstances as well, but this is a separate issue from these two GIs receiving equal treatment in Korean courts.

We all know Korean courts give jacked up sentences for sex crimes, but I’m thinking about this case setting a precedence so GIs don’t get screwed over in Korean courts like we have seen repeatedly in the past.  So that is why I find the outrage that GIs received treatment in Korean courts similar to what a Korean would receive, from the anti-US groups and netizens quite ironic.

_____________________________

I am quite amazed by this, but the two GIs involved in the policewoman rape case have been released:

The Seoul High Court on Monday freed two U.S. soldiers who were serving prison terms after being convicted of attempting to rape an off-duty South Korean policewoman last April.

Sgt. Anthony Basel and Pfc. Mark Feldman, both 61st Maintenance Company, were convicted July 27 of attempting to rape the woman in a public restroom in the Gangnam district of Seoul after a night of heavy drinking.

Basel, who admitted attempting to rape the woman, was sentenced to 3½ years and Feldman, who maintained his innocence, was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

On Monday, the court overturned Feldman’s conviction, citing a lack of evidence and changing witness testimony during the investigation.

“At the time of the incident, right before the incident there was misconduct and [Feldman was seen] running away with defendant Basel,†head judge Cho Hee-dae said through an interpreter. “This might create the suspicion that he is guilty. However, there is no concrete evidence.â€

Cho reduced Basel’s sentence to 18 months, minus the 113 days he had served, but suspended the sentence for two years.

Cho said he reduced and suspended Basel’s sentence because it was a “failed attempt†at rape; Basel was highly intoxicated at the time of the attack; he’d suffered trauma during a deployment to Iraq; and the 10 million won (about $10,905) settlement paid the woman after the first trial. [Stars & Stripes]

This is an amazing announcement and the first time I can personally remember a GI being found not guilty in a major case like this. After all the dubious convictions of GIs in the past maybe the Korean legal system is actually starting to mature.

Over at the Marmot’s Hole Robert has translated Korean reactions to the announcement and they are of course not pleased:

The Herald Gyeongje, meanwhile, reports that controversy has already started. Women’s groups and left-wing civic groups are “shocked†by the decision, despite it “being clear that the crime was premeditated.†Netizens, meanwhile, are ashamed.

Jeong Yong-jun, the director of the Peace Alliance of JinboCorea, called the decision a “typical political judgment.†He said, “One can only see it as a political decision made in consideration of the United States and negotiations between Korea and the United States. She might have been in plain clothes, but one cannot reduce sentences and acquit [criminals] for the serious crime of premeditatedly attempting to rape a police officer.â€

Netizens, meanwhile, are ashamed… or so says the Herald Gyeongje. Said one, “Many people call our country, ‘Small but Strong Korea,’ but to America, we must seem like nothing.†Another, meanwhile, said it appears nothing has changed since the time two middles school girls were killed after being struck by a US military vehicle in 2002.

Not surprising the netizens bringing up another dubious case like the 2002 armored vehicle accident to justify their rage at another dubious case such as this. How do these netizens explain all the GIs convicted over the years and sentence in Korean court before and after 2002? It still amazes me how Koreans still think GIs get off in Korean courts when this is the first major incident I can remember a soldier being acquitted.

Robert calls the decision to release Basel “outrageous” and commenters seem to agree, but lets look at the facts instead of emotional reactions. I have followed this case very closely from the beginning because it was dubious. I knew the evidence of this case had to be weak because of how long it took to file the charges. Usually charges against GIs in high profile crime cases are filed rather quickly.

PFC Feldman was clearly innocent when he was originally convicted. Feldman claimed he was trying to hail a taxi while SGT Basel went to use the restroom. This alibi is highly likely since the victim did not remember seeing Feldman in the restroom. Also the Korean restaurant owner who heard the woman yell in the bathroom originally wrote on a sworn statement after the incident that he saw only one man in the restroom. Then days later after the police got a hold of him he changed his statement to say he saw Feldman in the restroom. Additionally the Korean prosecutors were linked to trying to coerce Basel into writing a statement saying that Feldman was in the restroom for a lighter sentence.

The evidence against Feldmann was so dubious that when he was convicted the chief judge encouraged Feldmann to appeal the sentence which is what he did. Finally, on appeal Feldmann was found not guilty and when look at the evidence he should have never had any charges brought against him in the first place.

Now let’s look at Basel’s case. The restroom was a unisex restroom and Basel had 20 beers that day and was highly intoxicated. He goes into the restroom and walks in on the woman there. Basel says he only remembers going into the restroom and after some confrontation with the woman pushing her on the ground while his pants were down. Remember she was not raped by Basel and he was in a restroom he had every right to go into since it was unisex. He could argue his pants were down because he taking a piss before the confrontation for all we know. From the media reports we don’t know if he attempted to take clothes off of her. It would be hard to rape somebody if you don’t take their clothes off.

The only thing we know is that he was highly intoxicated, went to take a piss, got into a confrontation, pushed the woman to the ground while having his pants down. He definitely committed a crime but if he made no attempt to take the victim’s clothes off I would consider this more a drunken sexual assault than a rape. However, the evidence itself shows there is no way this incident was premeditated as the Korean feminist and left wing groups claim.

To complicate things further is the changing witness statements and the fact that the prosecutors were linked to trying to coerce Basel into implicating Feldman. It is times like this it is important to remember these important words of every expat’s favorite lawyer in Korea.

So the appeal judges when looking at Basel’s case had to take into consideration the police and prosecutors incompetence in the case, the courtroom was originally not providing accurate translation services for the trial, the fact that the incident was what the Korean judges call a “failed attempt at rape”, as well as the fact Basel according to Korean custom paid over $10,000 in compensation money to the victim. Additionally you have to take into consideration Korea’s own lack of stiff penalties with rape cases. When you combine all these things that is how you get Basel receiving a suspended sentence after serving 113 days in jail.

If you don’t agree with this sentence ask yourself what would a Korean in similar circumstances have received? I can tell you very well what they would have received:

The Seoul High Court yesterday overturned the conviction by a lower court of a 49-year old taxi driver who had been charged with the rape of a 19-year old U.S. female soldier.
The man had received a 10-month prison term in the original trial after being convicted of luring the newly-arrived servicewoman from Incheon International Airport to a hotel near there where the woman said he raped her.

The woman reported the incident to U.S. military authorities, who asked for assistance from Korean prosecutors. The appeals court ruled that the woman had shown no evidence of having refused the man’s advances, and that he used “not enough violence to constitute rape.â€

This taxi cab driver committed what was obviously a premeditated rape of a 19 year old soldier who had just arrived in country and originally received a 10 month sentence for it before the case was overturned. This guy wasn’t even drunk, premeditated the attack, and actually raped her and received no jail time. You want outrageous this case is outrageous. I can also point to the case of the ROK Army soldier who sexually assaulted a female US soldier on Camp Casey while she was sleeping and he to received no jail time. If you look at past precedents SGT Basel has already been punished more harshly than other Korean rapists and sexual assaulters.

SGT Basel is only going to be further punished because his career is over and will probably face an other than honorable discharge of some sort that will follow him around the rest of his life. I’m not sure if being convicted of a sex crime in a Korean court would cause him to have to register as a sex offender in the US, but if he did, that would be something else that would follow him around the rest of his life. He probably deserved more jail time which if he was tried in a US military court he would have assuredly received, but the mitigating circumstances in the Korean court were overwhelming and I overall look at this case as a step forward for the Korean legal system and maybe one day justice for GIs in Korea will not be so hard to find.

– See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2X0KOqSSjLIJ:rokdrop.com/page/1034/%3Fq%3DSave%2520Us%2520From%2520Berlusconi+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us#sthash.0AB4ytcm.dpuf

 UPDATE: ZenKimchi has more K-blog reaction to the verdict and you can read Marmot’s reaction in the comments section, but both are critical that he got off because he was drunk.  Not only was he drunk but there was plenty of other mitigating circumstances as well, but this is a separate issue from these two GIs receiving equal treatment in Korean courts.

We all know Korean courts give jacked up sentences for sex crimes, but I’m thinking about this case setting a precedence so GIs don’t get screwed over in Korean courts like we have seen repeatedly in the past.  So that is why I find the outrage that GIs received treatment in Korean courts similar to what a Korean would receive, from the anti-US groups and netizens quite ironic.

_____________________________

I am quite amazed by this, but the two GIs involved in the policewoman rape case have been released:

The Seoul High Court on Monday freed two U.S. soldiers who were serving prison terms after being convicted of attempting to rape an off-duty South Korean policewoman last April.

Sgt. Anthony Basel and Pfc. Mark Feldman, both 61st Maintenance Company, were convicted July 27 of attempting to rape the woman in a public restroom in the Gangnam district of Seoul after a night of heavy drinking.

Basel, who admitted attempting to rape the woman, was sentenced to 3½ years and Feldman, who maintained his innocence, was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

On Monday, the court overturned Feldman’s conviction, citing a lack of evidence and changing witness testimony during the investigation.

“At the time of the incident, right before the incident there was misconduct and [Feldman was seen] running away with defendant Basel,†head judge Cho Hee-dae said through an interpreter. This might create the suspicion that he is guilty. However, there is no concrete evidence.

Cho reduced Basel’s sentence to 18 months, minus the 113 days he had served, but suspended the sentence for two years.

Cho said he reduced and suspended Basel’s sentence because it was a failed attempt at rape; Basel was highly intoxicated at the time of the attack; he’d suffered trauma during a deployment to Iraq; and the 10 million won (about $10,905) settlement paid the woman after the first trial. [Stars & Stripes]

This is an amazing announcement and the first time I can personally remember a GI being found not guilty in a major case like this. After all the dubious convictions of GIs in the past maybe the Korean legal system is actually starting to mature.

Over at the Marmot’s Hole Robert has translated Korean reactions to the announcement and they are of course not pleased:

The Herald Gyeongje, meanwhile, reports that controversy has already started. Women’s groups and left-wing civic groups are “shocked†by the decision, despite it “being clear that the crime was premeditated.†Netizens, meanwhile, are ashamed.

Jeong Yong-jun, the director of the Peace Alliance of JinboCorea, called the decision a “typical political judgment.†He said, “One can only see it as a political decision made in consideration of the United States and negotiations between Korea and the United States. She might have been in plain clothes, but one cannot reduce sentences and acquit [criminals] for the serious crime of premeditatedly attempting to rape a police officer.â€

Netizens, meanwhile, are ashamed… or so says the Herald Gyeongje. Said one, “Many people call our country, ‘Small but Strong Korea,’ but to America, we must seem like nothing.†Another, meanwhile, said it appears nothing has changed since the time two middles school girls were killed after being struck by a US military vehicle in 2002.

Not surprising the netizens bringing up another dubious case like the 2002 armored vehicle accident to justify their rage at another dubious case such as this. How do these netizens explain all the GIs convicted over the years and sentence in Korean court before and after 2002? It still amazes me how Koreans still think GIs get off in Korean courts when this is the first major incident I can remember a soldier being acquitted.

Robert calls the decision to release Basel “outrageous” and commenters seem to agree, but lets look at the facts instead of emotional reactions. I have followed this case very closely from the beginning because it was dubious. I knew the evidence of this case had to be weak because of how long it took to file the charges. Usually charges against GIs in high profile crime cases are filed rather quickly.

PFC Feldman was clearly innocent when he was originally convicted. Feldman claimed he was trying to hail a taxi while SGT Basel went to use the restroom. This alibi is highly likely since the victim did not remember seeing Feldman in the restroom. Also the Korean restaurant owner who heard the woman yell in the bathroom originally wrote on a sworn statement after the incident that he saw only one man in the restroom. Then days later after the police got a hold of him he changed his statement to say he saw Feldman in the restroom. Additionally the Korean prosecutors were linked to trying to coerce Basel into writing a statement saying that Feldman was in the restroom for a lighter sentence.

The evidence against Feldmann was so dubious that when he was convicted the chief judge encouraged Feldmann to appeal the sentence which is what he did. Finally, on appeal Feldmann was found not guilty and when look at the evidence he should have never had any charges brought against him in the first place.

Now let’s look at Basel’s case. The restroom was a unisex restroom and Basel had 20 beers that day and was highly intoxicated. He goes into the restroom and walks in on the woman there. Basel says he only remembers going into the restroom and after some confrontation with the woman pushing her on the ground while his pants were down. Remember she was not raped by Basel and he was in a restroom he had every right to go into since it was unisex. He could argue his pants were down because he taking a piss before the confrontation for all we know. From the media reports we don’t know if he attempted to take clothes off of her. It would be hard to rape somebody if you don’t take their clothes off.

The only thing we know is that he was highly intoxicated, went to take a piss, got into a confrontation, pushed the woman to the ground while having his pants down. He definitely committed a crime but if he made no attempt to take the victim’s clothes off I would consider this more a drunken sexual assault than a rape. However, the evidence itself shows there is no way this incident was premeditated as the Korean feminist and left wing groups claim.

To complicate things further is the changing witness statements and the fact that the prosecutors were linked to trying to coerce Basel into implicating Feldman. It is times like this it is important to remember these important words of every expat’s favorite lawyer in Korea.

So the appeal judges when looking at Basel’s case had to take into consideration the police and prosecutors incompetence in the case, the courtroom was originally not providing accurate translation services for the trial, the fact that the incident was what the Korean judges call a “failed attempt at rape”, as well as the fact Basel according to Korean custom paid over $10,000 in compensation money to the victim. Additionally you have to take into consideration Korea’s own lack of stiff penalties with rape cases. When you combine all these things that is how you get Basel receiving a suspended sentence after serving 113 days in jail.

If you don’t agree with this sentence ask yourself what would a Korean in similar circumstances have received? I can tell you very well what they would have received:

The Seoul High Court yesterday overturned the conviction by a lower court of a 49-year old taxi driver who had been charged with the rape of a 19-year old U.S. female soldier.
The man had received a 10-month prison term in the original trial after being convicted of luring the newly-arrived servicewoman from Incheon International Airport to a hotel near there where the woman said he raped her.

The woman reported the incident to U.S. military authorities, who asked for assistance from Korean prosecutors. The appeals court ruled that the woman had shown no evidence of having refused the man’s advances, and that he used “not enough violence to constitute rape.

This taxi cab driver committed what was obviously a premeditated rape of a 19 year old soldier who had just arrived in country and originally received a 10 month sentence for it before the case was overturned. This guy wasn’t even drunk, premeditated the attack, and actually raped her and received no jail time. You want outrageous this case is outrageous. I can also point to the case of the ROK Army soldier who sexually assaulted a female US soldier on Camp Casey while she was sleeping and he to received no jail time. If you look at past precedents SGT Basel has already been punished more harshly than other Korean rapists and sexual assaulters.

SGT Basel is only going to be further punished because his career is over and will probably face an other than honorable discharge of some sort that will follow him around the rest of his life. I’m not sure if being convicted of a sex crime in a Korean court would cause him to have to register as a sex offender in the US, but if he did, that would be something else that would follow him around the rest of his life. He probably deserved more jail time which if he was tried in a US military court he would have assuredly received, but the mitigating circumstances in the Korean court were overwhelming and I overall look at this case as a step forward for the Korean legal system and maybe one day justice for GIs in Korea will not be so hard to find.