“We hold our service members to the highest standards and any allegation of sexual misconduct is taken seriously," U.S. Forces Korea spokesman David Kim said Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (Gustavo Castillo/U.S. Air Force)
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean prosecutors have recommended a five-year prison sentence for a U.S. service member who pleaded guilty to inappropriately touching a 5-year-old girl over the summer.
The man — identified only as a 37-year-old American service member — entered his plea Oct. 16 at the Daejeon District Court’s Cheonan Branch, a senior investigator with the South Chungcheong Police Agency said by phone Wednesday.
The service member is charged with “committing indecent acts by force” toward the young South Korean girl on July 2 at an apartment in Asan city, the investigator said.
Asan is less than five miles from Camp Humphreys, the U.S. military’s largest overseas military base, roughly 40 miles south of Seoul.
The investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the rules of his job, declined to provide further information about the service member, citing a South Korean law protecting the identities of people accused of non-violent crimes.
The Cheonan Branch of the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office, which recommended the five-year sentence, said the service member put his hand inside the girl’s pants, touched her genitals and then picked her up, a separate investigator said by phone Friday.
A final verdict from presiding Judge Jeon Kyongho is scheduled for Nov. 13.
U.S. Forces Korea said in an emailed statement Friday that a service member was “suspected of sexual misconduct” following a joint investigation by the military and Korean National Police.
“We expect all USFK-affiliated service members to conduct themselves appropriately,” command spokesman David Kim said in the statement. “We hold our service members to the highest standards and any allegation of sexual misconduct is taken seriously.”
Kim declined to provide further information on the incident “to protect the integrity of the ongoing judicial process.”
