USFK renders all assistance necessary to ROK authorities in such cases. Interestingly, although US military personnel are subject to prosecution in ROK civil courts for almost all violations of ROK law, ROK military personnel are not subject to prosecution in ROK civil courts, only in the ROK military courts. It is the ROK, however, that decides which cases to waive, and the US must request each waiver in writing. There are fundamental differences between the ROK legal system and the US legal system. For example, in the ROK civil law system, trials are not by a jury of one's peers in the community as in the US common law system.
Trials are by a judge or panel of judges.
For example, the overwhelming majority of SOFA-status persons who are indicted in the ROK judicial system are found guilty. Although we do not maintain reliable statistics on the Korean population as a whole, we have reason to believe that this is generally true of Korean suspects as well. Thus, the weight of the criminal justice system in Korea is designed to promote a private settlement between the parties. This practice may be difficult to understand for a foreign accused, particularly one who fervently believes that he or she is innocent. Ironically, although acquittals are rare, sentences are generally lighter than in the US common law system, or for that matter, in military courts-martial.