Six American servicemen, including a 20-year-old identified as Mr. A, are being investigated for allegedly sexually harassing a 20-year-old Korean woman on Seoul Subway Line 1.
The incident reportedly took place on the Incheon-bound train from Dongducheon on Saturday evening.
During the police investigation, the victim—indentified as a Ms. B—said the servicemen were playing music loudly and dancing in the subway. She told them to be quiet, and that’s when she was attacked. She told police the GIs, who were drunk, started photographing her face, and when she protested, they started groping her. For several minutes.
B called the cops, and three of the GIs were arrested at Mangwolsa Station and turned over to American MPs. Police are looking for the other three, who fled the scene.
In a statement, 2ID said the division is taking the charges of inappropriate conduct very seriously, and that they will cooperate so that the appropriate measures are taken in accordance with the investigation results.
UPDATE: I can’t video footage of the crime itself, but here’s some of the arrest, plus some stellar graphic design work by the Dong-A’s TV channel to fill in the blanks.
I knew there was a reason we gave them cable channels.
Ye Olde Chosun has an even more detailed account.
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
What did Ms. B expect would happen when she tells six drunk soliders to be quiet?
I wonder if she was also wearing a short skirt, therefore asking to be raped.
There must be a bunch of people who took vids with their phones?
I live in Jamsil. Even during the bitter cold weather of December and January, there are young females in short skirts everywhere. Nobody touches them. What I was saying, is whether you are male or female (makes no difference) if you are next to drunk soldiers (of any race) it’s best to move on and keep away. It’s easy to avoid trouble, if you just use commonsense. If I were on a train and there were drunk soldiers playing music and dancing, I would have changed carriages without saying anything. At the same time, 3 of the GI’s have been detained and they will face justice.
predictably, Rokdrop is lost in desperate denial. yeah they got a lot of soldiers here, but the crime is really getting embarrassingly ridiculous at times
Would love to have been there to put these 6 punks in their places.
Like you, I would–and do–keep to myself and move to a different part of the train. Yet in the end, their behavior was despicable and should be punished.
Stupid, drunk soldiers + cellphone video cameras = new episodes of Archer
You just lost me at auto-playing unstoppable video. The advertisement can’t be paused, muted, anything and then it just rolls into the news report without warning, thanks, but no thanks.
As far as the ROK is concerned, i hope these (alleged) criminals get no more and no less than what their ROKA counterparts would get under similar circumstances.
As as as USFK is concerned, though, I say throw the book at ‘em. They’ve disgraced the uniform, the mission, and the country. Send them packing. Dishonorably!
DLB
I haven’t been on the Seoul subway in seven years, and if I am lucky, never will board it again, but in my younger days I used to scold wayward servicemembers acting the fool on the train. Singly or in groups, it doesn’t matter. One good thing about military socialization is that servicemembers submit pretty easily to someone in his late 30s/early 40s. If you see something, say something.
Interesting. Why is that? Is it because they are socialised into thinking that someone in their late 30/40s is a superior officer?
Thanks for the head’s up.
Probably. Officer or NCO, though. All I know is that in my interactions with military they are unfailingly polite, and even with the ones who are acting out, they can be brought back to Earth with a stern word. But I’m former military, which means I know which buttons to push and can call upon an inner “NCO voice” to add some authority.
Ha ha! were there really blond-haired guys in the mix there, like in that cartoon ‘re-enactment’?
What Brendon says. I once just stared a young buck who was threatening a couple of locals with a brick into line while another small group of GIs was waiting for me to put a whupping on him. I then had a nice chat with the group and talked them into packing it up for the night and heading back to base (I put them in the cab) before THEY got into trouble.
I once put a group of 20 rampaging soldiers in line with 3 stern words and fire from my eyes and got them to surrender. Granted, they weren’t US GIs, and it wasn’t the rugged Seoul streets, but 1990′s Chechnya was no picnic either.
Nice. Were you proclaimed a Hero of the Soviet Union for that, or did you have to settle for the Oder of Lenin?
Check your history, my historically challenged friend, there was no Soviet Union around at that time anymore.To answer your query, I was a civilian, backpacking through war zones for fun..kinda my hobby.
One good fantasy deserves another
Yeah, that makes 3 fantasies, mine, yours and Carr’s
Vid from the train or it didn’t happen!
A movie in the horizon no doubt, I wonder how many phone calls the police and TV news station received from witnesses after the fact? Had to have been at least fifty.
“witnesses after the fact”
priceless
Boys- don’t make me turn this car around!
Come get some, oppa
I am much more skeptical of a claim to have backpacked alone through war-torn Chechnya than I am of a claim to have talked soldiers in Itaewon out of doing something stupid.
This is how I imagine our fight. You’re the pitbull and I’m (obviously) the cat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf9wHkkNGUU
LOL. Yeah, my powers of forbearance are quite remarkable. Just “don’t make me angry; you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…When I lose control, it’s very dangerous to be around me.”
LOL. Yeah, my powers of forbearance are quite remarkable. Just “don’t make me angry; you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…When I lose control, it’s very dangerous to be around me.”
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8711750/dog%20cat%20mouth..jpeg
LOL. Yeah, my powers of forbearance are quite remarkable. Just “don’t make me angry; you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…When I lose control, it’s very dangerous to be around me.”
Twice, Chechnya is one of those gems. Not quite as good as Georgia when the Russians rolled through, but then Georgia always had its special charms. Did I mention mid 1990′s Rwanda and to top it off, I’ve picnicked in Palestine under an umbrella to stop incoming rockets, too.
So…uhm…she was sexually harrassed for several minutes…in a subway car full of Koreans? I wish all Koreans were not liars.
“…repeatedly touched her breasts, arm and wrist….” That’s obviously bullshit.
Women in Korea, and everywhere else, need to be armed. A woman armed is a woman safe
I knew in my neighbourhood a 16 years old guy back in 1992 who went to the former Yugoslavia to join fuck me what weird militia group involved in the conflict. He never made it back.
NO we didn’t hail him as a hero, we kinda felt sorry for the parents (which in turn didn’t seem too desperate about loosing such precious son) other than that he has always been considered pretty much the proverbial village dumbo.
Honestly, I don’t think it is. Obviously I wasn’t on the train, but it seems they may have surrounded her to do a bit of bump and grind.
Well, what with that “inner ‘NCO voice’” I’m, sure you would have any army eating out of your hand.
Public transportation is hell. The 3 months i spent with my licence suspended almost drove me to insanity, i can’t even comprehend how people can exist without a car
So the communications officer reporting on sexual harassment is named Stroker? Heh heh m heh heh.
Oh well, Korean police transferred the GIs to the US military police without any primary investigation.
http://news.nate.com/view/20130204n16430
I don’t appreciate the US military’s role in East Asia or anywhere else. Why are they wasting my tax dollars in places like Korea, Japan, Germany and in about 140 others? I want my money back.
It makes more sense in places like NYC and Seoul to not own a car. That said, it is nice to have a car in Seoul to go grocery shopping or to go on a short trip with the folks.
I once beat up 30 gangbangers with my bare fists. They were all armed and shit but I didn’t care. I was Bruce Lee Stallone. I still am.
Ah yes, blaming the victim. The men were drunk after all……………..wait a minute, where have I heard that before?
The US government strategist might think that serves the best interests of the US, such as securing resources, keeping enemies as far away from the US territory that minimize damage to the continent, and securing markets or investment for the US.
He means it!
“… hope they could make more concerted effort to win the hearts of the locals.”
When they don’t, it is called “Blow Back.”
One of the main reasons why the Okinawans want the Marines out. They act like the own the place and the Japanese really don’t care enough about the Okinawans to really complain that much on their behalf.
Right. And one of these days, some anti-American radicals are going to come over and attack us from within which will prompt our government to strip all of our rights and liberties in order to protect us. And we’re going to spend trillions of dollars handing out defense contracts, err, I mean, fighting these terrorists and suddenly find ourselves bankrupt. In order to keep funding these corporations, I mean, our totally justified wars on sovereign nations to smoke out their version of Jerry Falwells, we’re going to impose capital controls and monitor every American who make and spend their money. And one of these days, one of these days, baby, we’re going to win the hearts of minds of those who hate us for our freedom. Yeah, baby!
Yugoslavia wasn’t so bad.
Here’s an idea for the USFK…Instruct your spokespersons not to refer to this country as “ROK” when making official statements to local reporters, especially when the statements are about incidents involving USFK members.
I was just about to reply to Hitokiri before noticing this comment that you’ve been a CO, and so you can play the part convincingly. I doubt they’d react in the same manner to some old hippie.
My friend who was of age to get drafted when his family fled the former Yugoslavia during the war described the troops who started the conflict as a coalescence of village idiots.
Don’t know if I’m adding fuel to the fire, but here are some photos:
http://iamkoream.com/us-soldiers-arrested-for-sexual-harassment-of-korean-woman-on-subway/
I wonder if young enlisted men who spend time abroad representing the country I love take any basic
common sensecultural sensitivity courses sponsored by the Army? These are usually quite young men who may never have been out of the country, let alone their state.I wasn’t a CO. I was the hired help.
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