15-year prison term sought for U.S. soldier accused of raping S. Korean teen

Prosecutors on Friday demanded a 15-year prison sentence for a U.S. soldier accused of raping a teenage South Korean woman. In South Korea, 15 years of imprisonment is the maximum penalty allowed by law for rape. The 21-year-old U.S. army private of the 2nd Infantry Division stationed in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul, was indicted in early October on charges of raping a 18-year-old Korean woman in the early hours of Sept. 24 near his unit. The private broke into the young woman's small, rented studio apartment and sexually assaulted and tormented her after threatening her with a pair of scissors, prosecutors said. Before running away, he also robbed her of 5,000 won (US$4.40). "The army private does not deserve even a modicum of pity for his sadistic and abnormal crime against a young student," a prosecutor said during the hearing. The prosecutors also requested that the soldier be ordered to undergo compulsory therapy for sex offenders and that his name and his personal information be released to the public as part of his punishment. The Euijeongbu District Court is scheduled to hand down its ruling for the indicted solider on Nov. 1.