South Korean soldiers
On August 6th, a Private Yoon was beaten by superior troopers while serving in the Korean Army and was reported to have died in a military hospital while receiving treatment. Parents whose sons are currently enlisted in the armed forces to serve their country from all over Korea expressed outrage at how military officials were so unaware and irresponsible that such an incident could have taken place.
The Republic of Korea Ministry of Defense began to investigate the situation and released their version of what had happened in the 28th regiment. Private Yoon was enlisted into the ROK Army in December of 2013 and was assigned to the 28th regiment as a medic on February 18th, 2014. Before enlisting, Private Yoon was a regular college student who answered the call to serve his country like any other Korean young man. However, the private was greeted with violence and abuse from his direct superiors.
It is believed that starting from March 3rd, a Sergeant Lee, the leader of the barracks that Private Yoon was living in began abusing the newly enlisted trooper for really no special reason at all. The sergeant started to physically abuse Private Yoon for wearing a frown on his face and not responding fast enough to his orders. His accomplice, a Corporal Lee had started beating Private Yoon with a broom stick to the point where he was no longer able to walk properly.
Other corporals and sergeants who shared the same living quarters with Private Yoon took turns in abusing the new medic. Even after night inspection when all troopers were supposed to go to sleep, the corporals led by Sergeant Lee, took turns watching Private Yoon stay awake in an extremely uncomfortable stance so he could not sleep. On August 6th, it is believed that Sergeant Lee had started beating Private Yoon for almost three hours. While he was doing this he had three accomplices watch out for officers and other superiors.
The violence continued until the point where the culprits were forced to perform CPR on the private. He was eventually moved to Sung-mo Hospital where he died the next day.
Investigators from the Ministry of Defense also announced that Sergeant Lee was also victim to similar treatment before his promotion. It has been revealed that Sergeant Lee had enlisted in the army relatively late and had to serve under superiors who were much younger than he was and had to endure a great deal of discrimination and verbal abuse. He was eventually forced to be transferred to the 28th regiment where he did the same if not worse things to Private Yoon.
Sergeant Lee and the corporals were all regular youths like Private Yoon, but the non-stop violence passed down through the generations of soldiers who served before them was the root cause of this incident.
The soldiers responsible for the death of Private Yoon are currently under custody by the military police and await further investigation. However the shock of this incident along with the shootings among troops guarding the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) last month, is causing many students and parents to further fear the 22 months they must give up to serve their country.
