Seoul to secure custody at indictment

Korea-U.S. friction over the revision of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) is likely to persist, though the Korean government complied with the U. S. request that Seoul guarantee measures to protect the legal rights of American criminal suspects in return for the U. S. military authorities` agreement to hand over suspects to Korean authorities at the time of indictment rather than upon their conviction.

At the SOFA revision talks held Aug. 2-3, the U. S. side demanded in its proposal that Korea relegate legal jurisdiction over minor crimes, including those punishable by three years in prison or less, to U. S. military authorities. It also called for the right to suspend the validity of the SOFA for the protection of American criminal suspects, sparking protests that it was ignoring Korea`s legal order and infringing upon national sovereignty.

Accordingly, Seoul is obligated to seek means to compromise with the U. S. side with regard to the question of protecting U. S. criminal suspects at the next negotiations. In this case, whatever legal guarantee measures are provided for the American side, there would be problems with the fairness of the pact between U. S. nationals and Koreans.

Prompted by the United States Forces Korea`s illegal discharge of toxic chemicals through the sewage system and into the Han River, the Korean side proposed at the talks to incorporate contentious environmental clauses into the pact and agreed with the American side to thoroughly discuss this matter at their next round of discussions. The Korean proposal and the related agreement came in a joint press statement issued at the end of the two-day talks.

The Korean authorities said that environmental clauses are stipulated in similar U. S. pacts with Germany and Japan, and expressed satisfaction over the bilateral accord on agreed environmental stipulations. They also indicated that considerable progress was made in their negotiations pertaining to this particular matter.

Meanwhile, in the joint statement, the two sides revealed that they had discussed various problems, including labor, quarantine, civil suit procedure, the scope of people subject to the SOFA pact and others, which were raised by the Korean side.

The two sides agreed to hold their next SOFA meeting in the United States in two months.