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A former Army squad leader who bullied a junior soldier who later died received a suspended prison sentence, the court said Tuesday.
The Incheon District Court sentenced a 25-year-old man to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years, for abusing his authority and subjecting the victim to cruel treatment.
The former squad leader repeatedly berated a subordinate between November and December 2022 while serving at an Army barracks. He once ordered the soldier to “memorize the names of all battalion officers by tomorrow. If you fail, prepare to die.”
The next day, he ordered him to identify officers’ names, positions and ranks within three seconds when questioned.
When the junior soldier failed to answer, a senior serviceman threatened him: “If you don’t memorize them by tomorrow, even your direct superior will die.”
The next day, he scolded another senior for “failing to manage his subordinate properly.” The victim later suffered from panic disorder and depression and died in June 2023.
A senior soldier from the same unit told investigators that the victim “hated causing trouble for others” and “felt severe guilt and distress whenever the squad leader scolded him or tried to involve others in punishing him.”
The witness added that the perpetrator “would glare at the victim whenever they met in the smoking area or administrative office and often bad-mouthed him to other seniors.”
The victim reportedly began crying after being reprimanded and sometimes scratched his face until it turned red, showing signs of a panic attack.
The court found that “the defendant abused his authority to commit acts of cruelty in the special setting of the military and did not receive forgiveness from the victim’s family,” but also considered that he “largely admitted to the facts and had no prior criminal record.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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