S. Korea to create task force on crimes by U.S. soldiers

South Korea will create a task force to better deal with crimes by American soldiers, an official said Thursday. The move comes amid brewing public outrage after two U.S. soldiers were accused of raping teenage South Korean girls in separate cases in the past month. The two incidents are a stark reminder that the number of crimes by U.S. servicemen in South Korea has not abated in recent years. Police have said there were 377 alleged crimes by U.S. soldiers last year, up from 306 in 2009. Most of the U.S. military suspects evaded arrest by South Korean authorities, prompting calls to revise the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) governing the legal status of some 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea. Critics said the long-standing SOFA, last amended in 2001, is unjust because it goes too far in protecting U.S. soldiers. In the future, South Korea plans to make the most of SOFA rules that enable Seoul to request the U.S. military to hand over custody of suspects before indictment, according to officials. Currently, South Korean police have the right to take custody of a U.S. service member only if the suspect is caught red handed in such heinous crimes as murder or rape. "The government will make an effort with the U.S. military to come up with practical measures to try to prevent and reduce crimes by U.S. soldiers," foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said. The task force will include officials from the foreign ministry, police, the justice ministry, the defense ministry and South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command. Last week, South Korean prosecutors indicted a U.S. Army private on charges of raping an 18-year-old girl in her rented room on Sept. 24 in Dongducheon, a city home to several U.S. military units. In a separate case, another U.S. soldier is being investigated for allegedly raping a teenage girl on Sept. 17 in central Seoul. The incidents have prompted the U.S. military to impose a 30-day curfew on its soldiers across South Korea in a sign of its commitment to reducing crimes.