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 (Ú¸ÏÐ  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.