Busan Jungbu police said Thursday that the 21-year-old suspect struck up an acquaintance with the alleged victim, 24, through an online dating app. On February 18, while on leave from a US Forces Korea camp in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi province, he invited her for a drink.
Police said the man has denied the allegations, and has been turned over to the US military while the investigation continues, according to Status of Forces Agreement rules between Seoul and Washington.
The military said the soldier was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division and stationed at Camp Humphreys, south of Seoul. According to division spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Hyde, he "is currently being investigated by the Korean National Police and US Army Crime Investigation Department for an alleged sexual assault."
"The details of this incident and surrounding circumstances are currently under investigation," the spokesman said.
About 28,500 American troops are currently stationed in South Korea, a country that remains technically at war with North Korea, as the sides signed an armistice, but not a peace treaty, after the 1950-53 conflict.
In 1992, an American soldier was sentenced to 15 years for raping and murdering a South Korean bar worker. In 2011, a US Army private was put behind bars for 10 years for raping an 18-year-old South Korean woman.
These and other incidents resulted in protests calling for the withdrawal of US troops, with protesters claiming that they were more afraid of US military peacekeepers than the North Korean regime.
