ROKDrop post: Korean Military Academy & Sexual Assault

Korean Military Academy Fires Top General After Sexual Assault

Some serious house cleaning going on at the ROK Army’s military academy right now after a sexual assault case that involved a number of generals drinking with the victim prior to the assault:

The head of South Korea’s elite Army academy will be discharged from his service and 11 other Army officers will face disciplinary action in connection with a sexual assault case involving cadets, the Army said Monday.Lt. Gen. Park Nam-su, the head of the Korea Military Academy, had offered to retire shortly after a female cadet was sexually assaulted by a senior cadet after drinking with professors and colleagues during a campus festival last Wednesday.After the female sophomore had vomited due to consuming a lot of alcohol, a senior cadet brought her to his room and assaulted her. The male cadet is now under investigation by state prosecutors, Army officials said. Two one-star generals and nine lower-level officers, who drank with the victim, will be sent to a disciplinary committee over the incident.

During the festival, 38 professors and students drank after a sporting event, which violates the academy’s code of conduct, the Army said.”The academy chief will be discharged from his service and the disciplinary committee will investigate the other officers who drank together,” Maj. Gen. Ryu Sung-sik, who is in charge of Army personnel affairs, said during a briefing. “There was criticism that the Army was late to disclose the incident, but we were cautious because the victim’s parents didn’t want the case made public.”The Army said there is a lack of measures in regard to drinking by cadets, pledging to implement stricter rules for drinking on campus and prepare protective measures for female students, including installing a toughened access system with fingerprint readers at women’s dorms.  [Korea Times]

Currently the US Naval Academy is going through a similar incident where members of the football team are accused of raping a female midshipman that was blacked out due to over drinking.  However, there was no faculty or generals drinking with the midshipman before the assault.  However, in a separate incident a member of the faculty, a Marine Major was carrying on a relationship with a midshipman before being accused of sexual assault.  Then over at West Point there is the E7 accused of secretly videotaping cadets and the rugby team has been suspended due to inappropriate e-mails.