U.S. Accepts Some Korean Demands on SOFA Revisions

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U.S. Accepts Some Korean Demands on SOFA Revisions

The Korean government and the U.S. have been engaged in a dispute for a long time regarding the 'right time' for U.S. military personnel suspected of criminal avtivity to be delivered to Korean authorities. On August 3 in the Sejongro Government Complex, the two sides finally agreed to deliver U.S. military personnel who are suspected of criminal acts to the Korean authorities at the time of 'prosecution.'

After completeing two days of the SOFA (The Status of Forces Agreements) revision conference, Song Min-soon, director-general of the North American Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Forign Affairs and Trade and Frederick Smith, deputy assistant secretary of defense for asia-pacific affairs, declared, "Through this conference, we reconfirmed the importance of the SOFA in maintaining the national security of both countries. We also decided to revise the SOFA as soon as possible."

Both parties agreed to deliver criminal suspects to Korean authorities at the time of prosecution instead of after sentences have been passed.

However, director Song added, "We still haven't reached an agreement regarding the legal rights of criminal suspects. Therefore, we may have to continue negotiations with the U.S for a while."

Both parties stated that they also had a serious discussion on creating a new provision of Civil Procedure.

Finally, the two sides agreed to hold the next round of negotiations in two months time in the United States.

by Lee Chul-hee

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