|
U.S. military police officers are accused of extorting valuables or sexual services from businesses in Gijichon - or red-light districts that spring up near U.S. garrisons - MBC reported. The broadcaster's current affairs program ¡°Sisa Magazine 2580¡± reported Saturday that 10 MPs patrolling the U.S. airbase in Osan, Gyeonggi Province were recently replaced because investigators learned they were blackmailing local businesses.
Through testimony from Gijichon businesses, U.S. personnel and Korean police, the program painted a picture of MPs openly extorting valuables and sexual favors from female staff of entertainment places in the area.
¡°Without paying a cent, they drank and demanded to sleep with newly arrived foreign women," one business owner said. "If we refused, they threatened to make us ¡®off-limits.¡¯¡± Being declared off-limits can be the death-knell for local businesses as it means U.S. soldiers are barred from entering. The authority to declare a place off-limits rests with the military police.
Another business owner said he bought an MP a US$5,000 watch and a US$40,000 car.
The program also raised suspicions that U.S. soldiers were colluding with gijichon business owners to bring in foreign women through paper marriages. It said with tighter laws on illegal foreign residents, U.S. soldiers were making money by inviting prostitutes from abroad into the country under the pretext of marriage or engagement.
The U.S. soldiers implicated in the corruption are currently under investigation, the program said. ¡°In order to report in detail on the criminal charges, we asked the U.S. military for interviews, but we were refused" by USFK authorities on the grounds that the matter was "under investigation," the production team said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
