▲ The U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province (Yonhap)

military assault-top court

Top court rules colonel punishable for slapping solider on U.S. military base

SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court has struck down a lower court's dismissal of charges brought against a former Army colonel for slapping a rank-and-file soldier in the face for not giving him a salute on a U.S. military base in 2018.

The former officer was charged with violence after he lightly slapped the soldier's face five to eight times on the U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, for failing to salute him in March 2018, when he served as head of the Eighth U.S. Army Republic of Korea Army Support Group.

The victim expressed the desire that he did not want the colonel to be punished, but the officer was still indicted because unlike the civilian criminal code, the Military Criminal Act stipulates punishment for acts of violence that happen on military bases, facilities or aircraft regardless of a victim's objection.

In the first trial, he was found guilty, but an appeals court dismissed his indictment by agreeing with his argument that the U.S. military base is not subject to the Military Criminal Act and violence cannot be punished against a victim's objection under the civilian criminal code.

However, the Supreme Court rejected that decision and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court for a retrial, saying it does not matter whether the violence took place on a military base for foreign troops or not as long as it happened at a place used for the country's military operations.

The top court's decision, delivered on June 15, was based on its view that even if the violence took place on a U.S. military base, it was where a strict hierarchical atmosphere and long-term barracks life are required, just like at South Korean military bases.

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