Coast Guard Disciplines 446 Cases Over 5 Years... Increasing Trend in Sexual Misconduct Disciplinary Actions

Over the past five years, there have been 446 disciplinary cases involving Coast Guard officers, with sexual misconduct accounting for 10.8% of these cases and showing an increasing trend each year.

According to data received on the 20th from the Korea Coast Guard by Democratic Party lawmakers So Byung-hoon (Gyeonggi Gwangju Gap) and Kim Seung-nam (Jeonnam Goheung·Boseong·Jangheung·Gangjin), the Coast Guard has taken disciplinary actions in 446 cases from 2019 through August of this year.

By regional headquarters, the West Sea Coast Guard Headquarters accounted for 132 cases, representing 29.6% of all disciplinary actions, followed by the Central Coast Guard Headquarters (17.9%) and the South Sea Coast Guard Headquarters (17.5%). By type, drunk driving and dereliction of duty were the most common, each with 61 cases (13.7%), followed by unfair acts using superior position with 54 cases (12.1%), sexual misconduct with 48 cases (10.8%), and assault with 27 cases (6.1%).

In particular, the number of sexual misconduct disciplinary cases has been increasing, from 3 in 2020 to 11 in 2021, 15 in 2022, and 11 as of August this year. In June, a Coast Guard officer from the Central Coast Guard Headquarters was booked without detention by the police for molesting a woman in her 20s on the street. In 2021, a senior Coast Guard official was demoted after making sexual harassment remarks such as "There are no virgins these days" to subordinates.

Disciplinary actions due to Coast Guard misconduct have been increasing recently. Last year, there were 141 disciplinary cases, the highest number since the Coast Guard was reestablished in 2017 after being disbanded following the Sewol ferry disaster. The number of employees who received severe disciplinary actions such as dismissal, removal, suspension, or demotion also reached 61 last year, more than three times the 24 in 2021.

Lawmaker So stated, "Recently, there have been unacceptable incidents such as a Coast Guard officer from the Mokpo Coast Guard Station killing a lover and drinking alcohol while cracking down on illegal fishing by Chinese vessels and assaulting colleagues," adding, "Efforts must be made to restore the lost authority and become a Coast Guard trusted by the public."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.