A Seoul appellate court upheld a lower court's 10-year prison sentence for a U.S. soldier stationed here for raping a South Korean teenage girl late last year in a military town north of Seoul.

The Seoul High Court also ordered the 22-year-old U.S. Army private of the 2nd Infantry Division to undergo 80 hours of a compulsory therapy program and have his identity and personal information disclosed to the public for 10 years, confirming a lower district court ruling on Nov. 1, 2011.

The 10-year prison term marks the country's second heaviest punishment for crimes committed by a U.S. military serviceman here since another young soldier was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the rape and brutal murder of a Korean sex worker in 1992.

The U.S. Army private, identified only by an initial of his name, "K," raped an 18-year-old woman in the military town of Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul, in the early hours of Sept. 24.

He broke into the young woman's small, rented studio apartment and sexually assaulted her after threatening her with a pair of scissors. Before running away, he also stole 5,000 won ($4.50). (Yonhap)