The 2024 Justice Yearbook released by the Ministry of Justice of South Korea recorded 599 cases and crimes involving US Forces Korea (USFK) in 2023. The figure is almost 70 percent higher compared to the number of cases recorded in the country in 2018.

Officials recorded 351 crimes in 2018, 444 in 2019, 541 in 2020, 457 in 2021, and 521 in 2022. The ministry’s report stated that the crimes range from drunk driving, road accidents, and drug possession to sexual offenses and assault. Many incidents occur at night in “entertainment districts.”

USFK is a command under US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) established in 1957. It comprises US combat forces assigned to the Korean Peninsula, including the US Eighth Army, US Air Forces Korea, US Naval Forces Korea, US Marine Forces Korea, and US Special Operations Command Korea.

Officials present the main mission of USFK as supporting the United Nations Command (UNC) and the ROK/US Combined Forces Command (CFC) through coordination, planning, and operation of US forces in Korea. Imperialist US uses this to continue dominating and controlling South Korea, and more broadly, the Indo-Pacific region.

Despite US troops’ crimes in South Korea, many offenders easily evade accountability because of its Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the US. Signed in July 1966 and enforced in February 1967, SOFA is an agreement that defines the rights, privileges, and obligations of foreign soldiers while present in South Korean territory.

Under Article 22 of SOFA, except for serious crimes like murder, custody of US military suspects is transferred to South Korea only when prosecutors formally file charges. This restricts national police investigations in the early stages.

Furthermore, South Korea courts cannot use a US soldier’s statement as evidence if investigators conducted the inquiry without the presence of a US government representative. This also restricts and limits even South Korean courts’ authority to prosecute offenders.

In the past, courts often very lightly penalize and fine US troops involved in various crimes. Worse, some do not experience any punishment at all.

“The impunity of the US military is a feature of imperialism that exists by design. While Seoul and Washington tout their alliance as a “partnership,” it is really a relationship of domination and neocolonialism,” Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, a group of anti-imperialist Korean migrants in the US, stated.

The group emphasized that American soldiers are neither friends nor guests of the Korean people. “They are the occupying arm of an empire that uses Korea’s land and people for its benefit,” the group added.

In July 2024, Nodutdol and other anti-imperialist groups in the US officially launched the “US out of Korea” campaign. They launched this campaign as a contribution to the growing anti-imperialist movement in America and other parts of the world, and against the US military occupation of Korea.