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Understanding the United States through 
the Crimes Committed by its Troops in Korea
 
- Lee Sohee (us@usacrime.or.kr) Secretary-General, 
National Campaign for Eradication of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea (Written 
January, 2003)
 
From 'liberator', 'ally', and 'blood brother' 
to 'occupying force' and 'source of all evil'could Korean public opinion be 
split so differently on the issue of the United States? This inevitably means 
that there must be a concealed and distorted history.
A History of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea
In modern Korean history, the U.S. troops first 
stepped on Korean soil on September 8, 1945 at the port of Incheon. Many Koreans 
welcomed the 'liberators' that had saved Korea from the Japanese occupation. 
Soon that welcome faded, however, when Koreans realized that the US military 
was to be stationed in Korea as an occupier as well. 
Afraid of possible interruptions to the landing 
operation, American forces arranged for the remnants of the Japanese military 
and police to keep Koreans indoors. When some Koreans gathered at Incheon port 
to welcome the U.S. troops, Japanese police shot two Koreans to death and ten 
were injured for trespassing. Against the protest of Koreans, the U.S. authorities 
ruled in favor of the Japanese police, saying the incident happened in the interests 
of public order. This is recorded today by advocacy groups as the first crime 
by U.S. troops in Korea. The charge level is 'aiding and abetting homicide.'In 
the intervening fifty-six years, many other crimes have been committed by U.S. 
troops. According to official Korean government statistics, roughly 52,000 crimes 
were committed by the U.S. troops and civilians related to the U.S. military 
from 1967 to 2002. Some 59,000 U.S. servicemen were involved in these crimes. 
When one considers that not all crimes are reported to the police, it is not 
difficult to imagine that there are in fact more crimes. Based on the statistic 
above, it is estimated that there would be more than 100,000 crimes by U.S. 
troops in Korea since their stationing in 1945. U.S. troops in Korea have committed 
about 700 crimes every year. In a word, they usually commit 2 or 3 crimes everyday.
The types of crimes are indeed diverse. They 
include people being shot to death, bitten by intentionally unleashed military 
dogs, poked in the eyes with a fork, strangled to death with a bra, cut in the 
throat with a razor blade, put into a water pool naked in the middle of winter 
and burned after killing. Records show that Koreans were killed without any 
particular reason, for not obeying the order to stop, for intervening in a quarrel, 
for waking up, for eating too much jam, for smoking too much, etc. Each and 
every case cannot be listed in detail.
It was only in 1992, after a half-century since 
US troops entered Korea, when the crimes by U.S. troops in Korea became widely 
publicized. The landmark case of Ms. Yoon Geumy , which involved a certain. 
Kenneth Lee Markle, still remains as a shocking picture for many Koreans until 
today.
In the evening of the day before the crime, 
October 27, 1992, drunk after barhopping, Ms. Yoon Geumy (26 years old at that 
time) was heading her home in Dongdoochon with Pvt. Markle (20 years old at 
that time), after agreeing to spend the night with him. On the way, the two 
came across with U.S. Cpl. Jason Ramburt in front of her house. They got involved 
in a quarrel for quite long time. Ms. Yoon, who had slept with him the night 
before, was now in another soldier's arms. Ramburt, who was already in a bad 
mood from negotiating for cost at another military camp town bar, picked on 
these two people. Pvt. Markle got mad, took Ms. Yoon by the hair, brought her 
into her room, and started to beat her up. He hit her forehead several times 
with a cola bottle. 
When blood poured out from her forehead and 
she stopped resisting, he poked in her anus with an umbrella he found in the 
room. The tip of the umbrella reached her rectum, 27 cm from the anus. This 
did not satisfy him. He stuffed two beer bottles into 
her vagina. When she was found dead, she was 
naked and a half of the cola bottle was still poked in her anus. He tried to 
cover up the evidence by putting broken matchsticks in her mouth and sprinkling 
white detergent powder all over her dead body. The autopsy reported the cause 
of death to be physical trauma and bleeding from the forehead.  
As the truth of this incident was revealed, 
civil, social, and religious organizations got together and formed the Taskforce 
Committee against the Murder of Ms. Yoon Geumy by U.S. Troops in Korea. The 
committee fought for more than a year, requesting fair punishment of the U.S. 
soldier. In the end, the Korean Supreme Court sentenced Pvt. Markle to 15 years 
imprisonment. 
Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea and National 
Security 
The main reason that prevented crimes by U.S. 
troops from being discussed in Korean society was the special position the U.S. 
occupied in the Korean national security framework. 
In 1950, with the outbreak of the Korean War, 
the U.S. was called our 'blood brother' because it dispatched troops into the 
war and sacrificed its young men to keep Koreans safe from the communist invasion. 
Since then, however, as U.S. troops remained stationed in Korea, their role 
changed to one of augmenting South Korean national security against an attack 
from the north. As a result, many of the crimes committed by U.S. troops in 
Korea were either justified or concealed in the name of 'national security.' 

1964 was a year of particular note in the history 
of crimes committed by U.S. troops. On February 4, 1964, while picking up cans 
near a U.S. base, Ms. Suh Myungja was shot to death by a U.S. soldier. She was 
nine months pregnant at the time. On the 6th of the same month, a 16-year-old 
boy, Ahn Jaeseop, was catching rabbits with a friend when he approached wire 
entanglements of a U.S. base. Right away a U.S. guard shot the boy through the 
boy's throat, and he died. When Koreans demanded an accounting of the incident, 
the U.S. authority announced that throughout the day, the UN Forces need to 
perform maximum protection for our war munitions for there are continuing threats 
of infiltration by communist spies. They justified the shooting by saying that 
it occurred to prevent the theft of military resources.
Continued shootings in the 1960s and the resulting 
official stance of U.S. troops vividly showed us the frightening barbarity of 
how crimes can be justified in the name of 'security.' Above all, the fact that 
the 'beautiful country (美國  how the U.S. is translated into Korean)' 
commits crimes was intolerable for Korean society. 
The blind pro-Americanism of Korean politics 
resulted in a corresponding blind anti-North sentiment. Talking about the negative 
image of the U.S. was taboo because it was easily connected with 'pro-Northern' 
sentiment.  This oppressive atmosphere was reflected in the fact that civilian 
massacres during the Korean War, including Nogeunri incident, came up to the 
surface only after a half-century of silence. In addition, unlike other countries 
under the U.S. sphere of influence which all had anti-U.S. movements, anti-U.S. 
sentiment or slogans were seldom found in Korea for several decades during the 
stationing of U.S. troops. This in fact shows how much the existence of the 
U.S. in Korean society has been considered unquestionable.
As time passed, however, the Korean people 
started to raise critical voices against the U.S. The most significant change 
appeared in 2000 when two major incidents created great controversy: the Maehyangri 
explosion and the illegal disposal of toxic materials. The Maehyangri incident 
revealed the effects of life-threatening noise pollution and serious heavy metal 
contamination over 50 years. Disposal of formaldehyde, which causes cancer and 
miscarriages, raised concerns throughout the country. Influenced largely by 
improvement of the relations between South and North after the summit of 
June 2002, anti-U.S. sentiment from various 
interests led to revision the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Korea 
and the United States. The reconciliatory mood between South and North caused 
damage to the national security ideology rooted on the logic of confrontation 
between South and North. The changing atmosphere also affected the foundation 
of the U.S. troop presence in Korea because it was and is based on a possible 
attack from the North. There developed, therefore, some splits in Korean politics 
surrounding the existence and role of the U.S. troops in Korea.
What Will the U.S. Choose?
What is the U.S. and why are U.S. troops in 
Korea? Now it is the time for Koreans to ask themselves this question. How should 
Koreans interpret the reality that the ones who are supposed to be here for 
the security of our nation are in fact threatening our life and safety? Is this 
situation benefiting or hurting Korean national security?
There needs to be a clear line between the 
defense of national security and criminal acts. In particular, impunity on the 
recent schoolgirls incident was without a doubt unacceptable for Koreans, though 
it happened during official duties of U.S. troops. It is quite natural that 
the recent rise of anti-U.S. sentiment in Korea coincided with the transformation 
of the Koreans' view of the U.S. according to a reality which was romanticized 
for so long.
It is necessary to make clear that the fundamental 
reason for anti-U.S. sentiment was the arrogant attitude of the U.S. authorities 
towards the victims of the crimes by U.S. troops in Korea. The perception of 
unequal relations between Korea and the U.S. also was a contributing factor. 

Just looking at the case of the schoolgirls, 
the U.S. authorities investigated the incident for the sake of formality that 
the truth is still not known. It refused the Korean government's request to 
turn over jurisdiction, and ended the trial with acquittal on the charge of 
negligence. After continuing requests for an apology, the president of the U.S. 
only delivered an indirect apology. This left a scar on Korean people's pride. 
This portrait stands in contrast to the image, which the U.S. projects, as being 
one of the best countries in protecting human rights. That the death of a few 
Koreans can be nothing serious to the U.S., and that the incident is treated 
differently because it happened to a foreign people, cause Koreans anguish. 
It is natural to raise doubts as to whether the U.S. is indeed an ally of Korea.
Now the U.S. is no longer an 'unconditional' 
benefactor to the Korean people. If the U.S., without accepting this clear fact, 
keeps insisting on the conventional relationship of the past, it could loose 
its blood brother. Only things left now is the choice of the U.S. 
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No Crimes by U.S.Troops!