U.S. military in S. Korea enforces toughened one-day curfew

SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. military in South Korea imposed a stricter one-day curfew Friday as part of efforts to combat a rise in off-base misconduct and crimes by its servicemembers.

About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against
North Korea -- a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce rather
than a peace treaty.
The United States Forces Korea (USFK) did not release figures concerning what its
commander, Gen. Walter Sharp, called "cases of sexual assault, aggravated
assault, assault and disorderly conduct."
Ordering a 10:00 p.m. curfew for April 24, Sharp said in a recent message that
the number of such cases has increased since last August when the curfew was
relaxed from 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.
Calling the trend "unacceptable," the four-star general also called for a
USFK-wide four-hour-long formation on Saturday for training on military
discipline.
"The stand-down is meant to focus everyone on correcting this trend now, so that
we do not have to change the curfew in the future." Dave Palmer, a USFK
spokesman, recently told Yonhap in a written message that cases of sexual assault
had not increased.
"While overall incidents increased, the number of sexual assault reports remained
consistent," he said. "The number of on-post incidents decreased slightly, but
the number of off-post incidents rose."
samkim@yna.co.kr