Gangwon Provincial Police said Friday the photos, taken in the barracks of the
307 Riot Police Battalion of Gangneung Police Department, show six members of
the unit posing nude for the cameras. Gangwon Police has called the six to
Chuncheon, where they will be questioned to determine whether they acted under
duress from senior policemen or suffered other forms of personal humiliation.
The pictures come at a sensitive time for Korea's security forces after an
enlisted man ran amok in the DMZ, apparently goaded by incessant bullying from
senior comrades.
Gangwon police say the photos were taken in early September last year and
uploaded from a computer in the unit's lounge onto a Cyworld blog by a
23-year-old identified as Cho, who was discharged from the unit on Sept. 26.
But the photos only recently spread around the Internet, police said. As of
3:00 p.m. Friday, Cho's blog was down.
However, Gangwon police said the taking of nude photos was a time-honored
practice in the barracks of the unit when members were promoted. Since it
appears that the subjects are smiling and laughing, it seems unlikely that they
posed under duress, police said.
Nude photos of riot policemen that have sparked a stir on the Internet. It has
been learned that the riot policemen in the photos, which were taken in
September, are part of a riot police unit it Gangwon Province.
