Migrant soldier claims racism in the barracks
A conscripted soldier of the South Korean Army says he was the victim of racially charged bullying, leading to an official military police investigation, according to local media reports on Monday.
The 22-year-old soldier jumped from the second floor of his barracks in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on April 23. While receiving treatment at the military hospital, he made the complaint to his superiors.
Born to a Chinese father and a mother who defected from North Korea, the soldier was born in China, where he lived for some time before moving to Korea. He enlisted last year after obtaining South Korean citizenship. According to him, other soldiers in the troop would call him derogatory names or say that he was a "fake Korean."
According to what he wrote in his journal in December, reported by local broadcaster MBC, he suffered from constant nightmares, had trouble breathing and was under constant pressure from his superiors. He also wrote that he was denied medicine that he requested.
The Army, in its initial report of the incident, did not specify any potential reasons behind the soldier's decision to jump from the window, but a report written three months later said he was "having trouble adjusting because of his difficulty communicating in Korean."
As the number of multicultural families in Korea increases, more Korean citizens with diverse ethnic backgrounds are completing their mandatory military service. A 2024 report by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses showed that 1 percent of all South Korean troops had non-Korean ethnicities in 2022. This figure is projected to reach 5 percent by 2030.
A 2009 revision of the Military Service Act had deleted a clause that exempted "mixed-race individuals with distinguishable external features" from mandatory military service. Though intended to abolish discrimination based on race, there are still complications stemming from a lack of consideration toward soldiers with diverse ethnic backgrounds.
The aforementioned KIDA report conducted a survey on 3,600 people in the South Korean military, revealing that 15 percent of the officers were unaware that there were soldiers of various backgrounds in the military. Additionally, over half of the officers were unaware that it is forbidden to call out soldiers' distinctive features based on their race and external appearance.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Korea Herald
Korean-born permanent resident of US seized at airport, trapped in detention for 8 days
A Korean green-card holder and resident of Texas was detained by US federal agents at San Francisco International Airport and held for eight days without access to legal counsel, an advocacy group said Wednesday. According to the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, Tae-heung Kim, 40, a Ph.D. student at Texas A&M University who has lived in the US since the age of five, was returning from South Korea after attending his brother's wedding before being caught by federal agents. The group said the US government has not disclosed the reason for Kim's detention, and immigration officials have refused to allow him to speak with an attorney or communicate directly with his family, except for a brief call to his mother on Friday. Kim, a legal permanent resident of the US, had a misdemeanor charge for possession of a small amount of marijuana in 2011, about 14 years ago. He was sentenced to community service, which he completed. 'The Trump administration continues to assault immigrants and undermine the constitution,' the group said in a statement. 'Customs and Border Protection agents have arbitrarily held him in inhumane conditions for over a week, depriving him of access to legal counsel and preventing him from seeking his freedom or exercising his basic rights.' Karl Krooth, Kim's immigration lawyer, said it is appalling to see a lawful permanent resident detained for a week without access to counsel. 'While detained, CBP kept the lights on 24 hours a day, and Kim was not allowed to see daylight, as the only time he was near a window was at night,' Krooth said. 'He was given no fluids other than water, ate only concession stand food and slept in a chair instead of a bed.'
Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Korea Herald
Chinese nationals caught using fake IDs to take Korean language test for others
Several Chinese nationals have been caught trying to take the Test of Proficiency in Korean, or TOPIK, on behalf of others using fake foreign resident registration cards. According to police on Tuesday, a Chinese woman in her 30s was caught while taking the TOPIK exam at Soongsil University in Seoul on July 13. She showed a forged residence card to the test supervisor and was immediately arrested. Police said her smartphone contained evidence that she had arranged to take the test as a proxy through a broker. TOPIK is a test that measures the Korean language skills of overseas Koreans and foreign nationals who are not native speakers. It is administered by the National Institute for International Education under the Ministry of Education and is commonly used for university admissions, job applications and visa procedures in Korea. Similar incidents were reported the same day at Hansung University and Inje University, where other Chinese nationals were caught trying to take the test with fake IDs. Since all the forged IDs were issued on the same date by the same regional immigration office, police are now investigating whether the cases are linked to an organized proxy test operation.
Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Korea Herald
Tax authorities launch investigation into Hybe amid insider trading allegations against chairman Bang Si-hyuk
National Tax Service probe follows recent police raid of K-pop powerhouse over alleged capital market violations Hybe, the entertainment giant behind K-pop phenomenon BTS, is now under investigation by the country's tax authorities, following a police raid last week over allegations that Chairman Bang Si-hyuk violated capital market laws. According to a local report Tuesday, National Tax Service officials were dispatched to Hybe's headquarters in Seoul to secure documents and financial records. The investigation is being led by the NTS' 4th Bureau of Investigation at the Seoul Regional Tax Office — a division typically responsible for special or irregular audits. Earlier the same day, the NTS announced in a briefing that it had launched tax probes into 27 individuals and entities suspected of stock market manipulation and tax evasion, with Hybe among them. The total scale of the suspected tax evasion is estimated at around 1 trillion won ($718.7 million). 'Unfair practices in the stock market have caused both domestic and global investors to lose confidence in Korea's financial system,' the agency said. 'This has deepened the so-called 'Korea Discount' and contributed to the nation's sluggish economic growth. We will thoroughly investigate tax evasion tied to capital market disruptions.' This marks the first time Hybe has faced a tax audit since 2022, when the Seoul tax office conducted a regular investigation and imposed a multi-billion-won penalty on the company. The new probe comes just days after police raided Hybe as part of a separate investigation into Bang. Authorities are probing allegations that Bang misled existing investors in 2019 by claiming the company had no plans for an initial public offering, only to later proceed with one. He is suspected of encouraging those investors to sell their shares to a private equity fund with which he was personally affiliated. According to South Korean financial regulators, Bang ultimately received 30 percent of the fund's resale profit following the IPO, allegedly pocketing roughly 190 billion won in unjust gains.
