By Park Si-soo
A total of 306 U.S. soldiers and their family members here violated the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Seoul and Washington by committing a range of crimes in 2009, up 67 percent from 2008, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Sunday.
Among the violators, 201 were American soldiers, up 63.4 percent from 123 in 2008. Civilians attached to the U.S. Forces were also involved in 105 criminal cases, up 75 percent from the previous year’s 60, the agency said.
SOFA is a package of regulations on legal issues associated with military individuals and property, which exclusively apply to U.S. troops and their families in South Korea. Under SOFA, the U.S. holds jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases involving affected U.S. citizens here.
Violence was the most common crime among those protected under the treaty with 130 individuals involved in such acts, followed by theft at 83 and 15 cases of intellectual crimes. Seven broke the accord by committing robbery and five for sexual assaults, it added.
“No homicides have taken place over the past five years,” an NPA spokesman said. “One thing notable is that theft cases last year increased more than two times from 2008.”
The SOFA status has been a constant source of public outcry here.
One of the U.S. soldiers benefiting from the agreement of late was a 37-year-old 3rd Class Petty Officer .
He was accused of stabbing three people with a weapon in March 2009 at a bar in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. But Korean authorities had no choice but to hand him over to the U.S. military police for investigation in accordance with the agreement.
A major setback erupted in 2002 when two Korean girls were killed by a U.S. military vehicle being driven back to camp after a training exercise. Despite domestic outcry, the U.S. military court found the act to be an accident and acquitted the service members of negligent homicide, citing no criminal intent or negligence.
Coupled with anti-American sentiment here, the accident touched off large-scale street rallies across the country demanding an amendment of SOFA.