U.S. Soldiers Reprimanded for Fatal Accident; Yonhap-Rodong Sinmun Intregration Plan Proceeds Smoothly

On June 10, 2005, 51 year-old Kim Myung-Ja was pulling a yogurt cart across a street in Tongduchon, near Camp Casey. Kim pulled her cart into an intersection, in front of a U.S. Army deuce-and-half truck that was sitting at a stoplight. When the signal changed from red to green, 19 year-old Private First Class Jeffrey Bryant, who could not see Kim over the engine, pressed the accelerator, striking and killing Kim Myung-Ja. That day, Roh Moo-Hyun happened to be visiting President Bush at the White House. When Roh and Bush stepped out in front of the cameras for a joint press conference, Bush immediately expressed his condolences on behalf of the United States of America. LaPorte also ordered a nationwide safety stand-down.

June 13, LaPorte visited the victim’s family and provided the family with a “solatium payment. The family accepted the payment. On June 19, the family told the Stars and Stripes that it forgave PFC Bryant for the accident, and revealed some of Kim’s unlucky life.

Under political pressure from anti-American activists, the South Korean authorities questioned Bryant and then demanded that the U.S. military waive jurisdiction so that they could put Bryant on trial. This, in spite of the fact that Bryant was on duty at the time, meaning that the U.S. military had exclusive jurisdiction to try the case. On September 1st, the Army denied the Korean request for jurisdiction.

On October 27th, the Army issued PFC Bryant and three others with written reprimands.

Maj. Gen. George Higgins, 2nd ID commander, gave the reprimands to Capt. Richard Geren, company commander; Staff Sgt. Edward Winder, company master driver; and Sgt. Cassandra Cobb, vehicle commander, about two weeks ago, according to U.S. Forces Korea officials. The driver, 19-year-old Pfc. Jeff Bryant, received no punishment but was directed to receive additional training.

There was no preferral of charges, no grant of immunity, no trial, and no acquittal. Sensibly, the Army decided not to punish a young soldier for an accident and ordered him to perform corrective training instead. I don’t know how the performance of the commander and the NCO’s was deficient; however, they will never be promoted if those reprimands are filed in their Official Military Personnel Files. Indeed, those adverse filings will likely mean that the enlisted soldiers will be separated early under something called the “Quality Management Program” if they have less than 17 years of service.

Now, here’s how South Korea’s official news agency reports the outcome of the case, and the remarks of some noted authorities on judicial procedure:

N. Korea blasts U.S. solider’s immunity from punishment

SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Yonhap) — North Korea denounced the U.S. Saturday for acquitting a U.S. soldier who killed a South Korean woman in a traffic accident, calling it a proof that Americans rule South Korea as a colony.

In June, Pvt. 1st Class Jeff Briant, 19, killed a South Korean women in a traffic accident near the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division stationed north of Seoul. He was found not guilty in a U.S. military court.

Aside from the irony of North Korea lecturing anyone about criminal procedure, there is not a single correct factual statement in this entire three-sentence story, save the soldier’s age and unit. They even managed to misspell his name and get his rank wrong. Whoever wrote this story is a careless, incompetent hack, thoroughly unacquainted with the facts and the judicial procedures on which he purports to report, and unfit to call himself a journalist.

This yet another example of what we find ourselves up against in Korea. This is why we must either find an efficient way to distribute the truth in Korea or get out. Not enough specifics for you, you say? What else do you expect, you ask? Reporting this would be a nice start on the road to some reasonable balance.

The soldier led Browne and Capt. Rachelle Beseman, a physician’s assistant, onto the train tracks, where they saw a smashed car resting both on the tracks and the platform, Beseman said. Minutes earlier, the car had careened off an overpass and fallen about 90 feet onto the Korean Train Express tracks, Korean officials said.

Browne and Beseman, who also is with the 168th Medical Battalion, began helping the three Koreans who had been in the car. A Korean surgeon who also happened to be waiting for the bullet train already was doing triage, Browne said. “They looked horrible,” Beseman said Friday morning during a phone interview. “They looked really hurt. I honestly did not expect them to be alive.”

Two women were unconscious but breathing, so Browne and Beseman began helping with the third victim, the male driver. Browne cleared an airway for the man and waited until Korean rescue personnel arrived. It seemed like forever, but I’m sure it was only five or 10 minutes, Beseman said.

Korean officials said Friday that the quick actions by both the American and Korean bystanders helped the three victims stay alive immediately after the crash. Had it not been for their professional medical involvement on time, the injured people could not have survived, said Chun Tae-ryong, a Korean firefighter who was among the first on the scene Thursday.

Of course, it wouldn’t fit the Korean media’s image (North and South alike) that all Americans are baby-killers and rapists. That’s an image they’re free to have, but not on my dime.