Police said Wednesday they have charged a U.S. soldier without physical detention on charges of forging and using checks in Seoul.
The Dobong Police Station in northern Seoul said a 26-year-old U.S. corporal has been charged with using eight forged checks, each worth 100,000 won ($88.70), at eight different places in late October and the middle of November.
The corporal, identified by the initial of his surname G, is accused of forging 14 checks using a scanner and a color printer at home, police said, noting he handles maintenance at the U.S. 8th Army. Police added that all the checks had identical serial numbers.
The corporal first used a forged check in October at a donut shop near Changdong Station in Dobong District and took his change in won. Then in November, he attempted to use another forged check but the shop owner, who remembered the soldier from the earlier transaction, reported him to police.
Police said the corporal first said he had received the checks from someone else, but later admitted to his wrongdoing after he spoke with a U.S. military official who visited the police station.
The corporal and his wife then visited all the shops in the area where he had passed forged checks to compensate them for their losses, and to plead for mercy, police said.
The soldier testified that he had forged the checks because of financial difficulties.
Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that governs the legal status of U.S. troops in South Korea, the corporal will come under the U.S. military's jurisdiction within 28 days if South Korean Justice Ministry declines to exercise its jurisdiction, a police official said.
The case follows a recent string of crimes or alleged wrongdoings by U.S. soldiers here. One has been sentenced to 10 years for rape and another arrested on separate sexual assault charges. A third soldier is under investigation for allegedly starting a fire at a Seoul bar last month.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)