Three of every four crimes committed within South Korea's military were carried out by officers and noncommissioned officers rather than enlisted soldiers, according to defense ministry data, raising questions about discipline in the ranks. Crimes by generals have also occurred every year.
Data on military crime over the past five years, submitted by the Ministry of National Defense to Rep. Kim Dong-a of the Democratic Party of Korea, showed 909 cases were uncovered from 2022 through June 2026. Of those, 686 cases, or about 75%, were committed by officers and noncommissioned officers, while enlisted soldiers accounted for 223 cases, or 25%.
Crimes by generals and other senior commanders have occurred each year. Cases involving general-grade officers numbered five in 2022, one in 2023, seven in 2024 and two in 2025, before rising to seven in the first half of 2026 alone.
By type, crimes by generals included drunk driving with three cases, offenses against superiors with two, illegal gambling with one, and 13 other cases. The other category covers abuse of authority, defamation, perjury intended to harm a defendant, and insult. Investigations and trials of military sex crimes have been transferred to police and other civilian authorities and are excluded from the ministry's figures. Even so, the data mean that more than five of the 375 generals serving as of 2025 have criminal records.
Crimes by field-grade officers, who form the backbone of unit command, totaled 200 cases from 2022 through the first half of this year, or roughly 40 cases a year. They included serious offenses such as drunk driving, drug use and sex crimes that erode discipline and public trust in the armed forces. By category, there were 30 economic crimes, 20 cases of drunk driving, 16 of assault, five offenses against superiors, two drug cases, two sex crimes, one case of desertion and 124 others.
"Criticism has long been raised in the media that military court rulings are harsh on powerless enlisted soldiers and lenient toward high-ranking officers, in a pattern of protecting their own," Kim said. "Even looking at the actual statistics, the fact that an overwhelming majority of crimes occur among officers and noncommissioned officers who are supposed to lead the military is evidence that military discipline is being shaken to its roots."
Kim added that the entire military justice system should be thoroughly reviewed so that rank-and-file service members are not unfairly punished or disadvantaged by a breakdown in judicial fairness. "Regardless of rank, officers who commit crimes must be held to a far more rigorous, strict and fair judicial standard," he said.
