The true identity of the outcasts in the small, cramped rooms has been revealed.
On the July 9 broadcast of SBS’s ‘Tail-Biting-Tail Story’ (Kkokkomu), the program traced the horrific deaths of women known as U.S. military comfort women.
In 1992, a woman was brutally murdered in a small room in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province. Found naked with her face crushed, the victim died from blood loss caused by a laceration to her forehead.
The victim’s body had several foreign objects inserted into it, and the state of the remains was so shocking that it left viewers speechless.
The woman who died at a scene of such profound humiliation, where human dignity was completely shattered, was named Yun Geum-i. Through the investigation, the perpetrator was identified as Kenneth Markle, a 19-year-old private in the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division.
However, the police did not interrogate or even detain Markle after catching him. This was due to the clauses of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between South Korea and the U.S. The agreement, which originated from the Daejeon Agreement on July 12, 1950, during the instability of the Korean War, lacked any sense of fairness.
Although a Korean woman in her 20s had been brutally murdered in Korea, the Korean authorities could not even detain the U.S. military criminal. Investigations were limited to specific times and required the presence of U.S. officials, while the U.S. side held the lead in initial investigations and restricted interrogations.
Consequently, a proper investigation was impossible. Public anger reached a boiling point, and citizens of Dongducheon even abandoned their livelihoods to stage a ‘U.S. Military Boycott Movement,’ demanding the punishment of Markle.
At the time, South Korean society showed a lukewarm response to crimes committed by U.S. soldiers, especially murder. Between 1967 and 1987, there were 39,452 confirmed crimes committed by U.S. soldiers, yet only 234 trials were held in Korea.
On October 27, 1992, Markle, who had visited a club near his base, claimed he encountered Yun Geum-i while returning in a drunken state and that he had kindly walked her home. He unilaterally claimed that Yun Geum-i attacked him there and that he used violence in self-defense.
He also claimed he was not involved in her death, alleging that another U.S. soldier named Lambert, who was usually close to Yun, had killed her out of jealousy. However, Lambert’s alibi was confirmed during the investigation, and Markle continued to repeat lies.
Markle also sparked outrage with his remarks about Yun Geum-i, stating, “She didn’t do anything to deserve death, but she did things that deserved a beating.” Even in his final statement, Markle offered no apology to Yun Geum-i. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Markle appealed the decision, and in the appellate trial, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was finalized by the Supreme Court.
Markle was 19 at the time of the crime. An expert analyzed his behavior, noting, “It is displaced aggression. Expressing his own anger took precedence over the goal of killing the person. Because Lambert was a difficult target to project his violence onto, he humiliated and objectified the victim. It is presumed that he mutilated the victim’s body while she was still alive to demonstrate his own anger and sense of omnipotence.” There was even an analysis suggesting Markle exhibited antisocial personality disorder.
Why did Yun Geum-i become the victim of such a horrific incident? Around the same time, another murder occurred in Dongducheon—the death of a woman who lived in the same neighborhood and worked the same job as Yun. In fact, they were ‘gijichon’ (camp town) women, also known as U.S. military comfort women.
The camp towns were created by the state, which permitted and encouraged prostitution. The Park Chung-hee administration, which promoted and supported these areas, even implemented ‘camp town cleanup measures’ to control them as they earned 70 million dollars in foreign currency from U.S. military-related businesses.
However, the country remained silent regarding the murders of camp town women occurring across the nation. Feeling abandoned by their country, these women were the true outcasts of the small, cramped rooms.
After being paroled 12 years and 3 months into his sentence, Markle returned to the U.S. and lived an ordinary life. However, even after returning to the U.S., he committed over 10 crimes, including drunk driving, fraud, child support issues, domestic violence, and trespassing. He denied his charges until the end and died at the age of 50.
Yun Geum-i’s remains were cremated in a hurry two days after the incident and scattered at the Sangpae-dong public cemetery. The Sangpae-dong cemetery was a place where camp town women were buried without even a tombstone.
Recently, as park construction began, remains with surviving family members were relocated, and it was revealed that a funeral service company had handled the relocation of remains without identified next of kin. In particular, there were 780 such graves, most of which belonged to camp town women.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruling on a damages lawsuit filed by U.S. military comfort women against the state, which had lasted for 8 years, was released. In their final statement, the women appealed, saying, “What did we do wrong to be abandoned by our own country? It is so unfair that we lived our lives as patriots earning dollars on the inside, while being pointed at and shunned on the outside.”
The Supreme Court acknowledged state violence against the victims, ruling that “the Republic of Korea has a responsibility to provide compensation.” After the Supreme Court ruling, the victims felt as though they had become citizens of the Republic of Korea for the first time.
Among the 122 U.S. military comfort women, 27 have passed away. The survivors placed the written verdict on the graves of those who had passed away without seeing the ruling.
Last March, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family officially apologized for the U.S. military comfort women issue.
Finally, one former U.S. military comfort woman expressed her only wish, saying, “I just want to be looked at normally, to be seen as the same kind of human being,” leaving many with a heavy heart.
Reported by Kim Hyo-jung | Produced by SBS Entertainment News
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.