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By Kim Hyun-bin
A Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) soldier allegedly went absent without leave (AWOL) and spent the last five months of his service at his home, but the Korean military authorities were unaware of this until another soldier made an anonymous complaint, sources said Wednesday.
The former KATUSA sergeant, who was stationed at the U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) in Yongsan, central Seoul, was to be relocated to USAG Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, early this year. However, he did not follow the relocation order.
Currently, over 90 percent of U.S. forces and KATUSAs who were stationed in and around Seoul have moved to the recently expanded USAG Humphreys, according to a U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) official.
The deserter took advantage of lax personnel management at the time when soldiers were being continuously relocated to Humphreys in large numbers and only a small batch of KATUSAs were left behind at Yongsan.
"The suspect allegedly told Korean Army officers in Pyeongtaek that he was part of a handful of KATUSA and U.S. troops left working in Yongsan, but they did not cross-check this with officers stationed in Yongsan," a source told The Korea Times.
The man allegedly stayed at home while he was AWOL.
This was possible because roll-call were conducted poorly, compared to regular Republic of Korean (ROK) Army soldiers where roll-calls are taken twice a day ― once in the morning and another just before lights out at 10 p.m. ― and troops stay on base even at weekends unless granted authorized leave.
"You can't think of KATUSAs as ordinary ROK Army soldiers as they have much more freedom; they can leave base after working hours and spend nights outside base during weekends," a USFK official said.
On May 3, after nearly five months being AWOL, he was discharged from the Army after finishing his military service term, without anyone in charge of personnel affairs of KATUSA soldiers being aware of the situation.
The Army was only informed of the incident after a fellow KATUSA blew the whistle anonymously through the Ministry of National Defense's hotline in May after the suspect had already been discharged.
The whistleblower was one of five KATUSA sergeants punished in March for unauthorized leave from Camp Casey in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province. They were AWOL for up to 32 days before being caught by Military Police officers. They were tried under military law and had their military service extended by the amount of time they were AWOL and were demoted to corporals.
"We received a complaint from one of the KATUSA soldiers who left his post. He felt a sense of unfairness as he was punished while the sergeant who did not move to Humphreys was not," an official from the ROK Army told The Korea Times.
After receiving the complaint, the Army conducted an internal investigation and requested the police to deal with the case, July 29, as the deserter had been discharged from military service and was now a civilian who could not be charged by military prosecutors.
"Since the suspect has been discharged from the Army and is a civilian, we had to transfer the case to civilian police. They sent the case to the prosecution, which is handling the case at the moment. We are waiting for the results," the official said.
Under Military Criminal Act No. 79 regarding unauthorized leave, the man could be punished with up to one year in prison or a 3 million won ($2,467) fine for being AWOL.
"Even as a civilian, prosecutors can charge the suspect under Military Criminal Act No. 79, as his absence occurred while he was on active duty," the official said.
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