| A soldier receives punishment at a dorm. / Courtesy of Naver blog |
By Hong Dam-young
Korean military has come under scrutiny again for its violent practices within the army.
Yonhap news agency received a document from a military court under the Ministry of National Defense on July 30.
The document contained a series of eye-opening cases regarding evil practices in the army, such as physical, mental and sexual abuse.
Korea has long been struggling to eradicate the old military culture that led to violent incidents within the army. The incidents took many lives of those who committed suicide because they could not endure the assaults.
The government and the army have tried to reform the violent military culture. But the latest revelations make change more urgent.
Here are some of the uncomfortable truths about Korean military culture. They could well be beyond your imagination.
| A soldier abuses his subordinate by kicking his abdomen. / Courtesy of Naver blog |
One noncommissioned officer (noncom) from a front-line unit was punished for torturing other soldiers with a taser that shoots 90 volts of electricity, and beating them with a shovel and a hammer.
The victims testified that he sometimes beat them without any reason or only because he did not like their faces.
In 2014, another noncom beat his subordinates with nuts, pincers and clubs, and sexually assaulted one man by touching his testicles. The noncom also squeezed the victims' fingers with pincers, or punched their foreheads while holding nuts between his fingers.
Even snoring is not allowed. In July 2015, a soldier from Gyeonggi Province urinated on a subordinate's thigh as punishment for snoring. The soldier also screamed obscenities in the ear of the subordinate.
In another case, a soldier was convicted for making a subordinate strip off his underwear without any reason in a dormitory.
Female soldiers were subject to sexual harassment as well.
In February 2013, an air force officer was punished for sexually assaulting his subordinate, a single female. He tucked his ID card into her top pocket and next month put a gum wrapper in the same place.
His acts were revealed when the victim told another noncom what happened.