Seoul: A South Korean court Tuesday jailed a US
soldier for 10 years for raping a teenager, Yonhap news agency
reported, in a case which prompted an apology from a top US
diplomat.
The private was sentenced for raping the 18-year-old
multiple times in Dongducheon, which hosts the US Second
Infantry Division base and is near the border with North
Korea.
The US military handed him over to South Korean
authorities.
Visiting Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell last
month offered an apology to the Korean people for "the tragic
and inexcusable rape".
The US military also apologised and imposed a month-long
late-night curfew on its troops in the country.
Crimes by the 28,500 US troops based in the South are a
sensitive subject, even though many see their presence as
necessary to deter a North Korean attack.
Major anti-American protests broke out after a US armoured
vehicle killed two schoolgirls in a traffic accident in 2002.
Prosecutors at the court in the city of Uijeongbu north of
Seoul had demanded a 15-year sentence for the soldier, who was
not immediately identified.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 10:33