This image from an activist group shows banners criticizing THAAD — the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system — near Camp Carroll, South Korea, on April 29, 2025. (Network for Peace Against THAAD)
South Korean police are investigating three U.S. soldiers suspected of cutting down an activist group’s banners protesting the presence of an American air defense system at a South Korean base.
Police allege the three cut the ropes holding up several banners on metal fences near the front gates of Camp Carroll around 10:50 a.m. April 28, and 1 a.m. May 1, a Seongju county police investigator said by phone July 30.
Carroll is one of four small U.S. Army camps clustered in Daegu, roughly 135 miles south of Seoul. The others are Walker, George and Henry.
The banners carried messages calling for peace and criticizing the U.S. deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-missile system at Seongju Base, a South Korean army installation about 15 miles west of Carroll.
The investigator declined to identify the soldiers, citing South Korean privacy laws that shield crime suspects. South Korean government officials customarily speak to the media on the condition of anonymity.
The soldiers were identified by their vehicle license plate seen on closed-circuit television cameras, the investigator said.
The Network for Peace Against THAAD Deployment — the Seongju-based activist group that owns the banners — alleged that around 24 banners had been vandalized by the soldiers, the investigator said.
This image from an activist group shows where banners criticizing THAAD — the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system — were allegedly vandalized and removed near Camp Carroll, South Korea, on April 29, 2025. (Network for Peace Against THAAD)
“We urge [U.S. Forces Korea] to promptly issue a sincere apology,” the group’s leader, Kang Hyun Wook, said by text message July 30.
Eighth Army, headquartered on Camp Humphreys, about 40 miles south of Seoul, is “fully cooperating” with the police investigation, command spokesman James Choi said by email Tuesday.
He declined to provide further details on the incident and ongoing investigation.
“The U.S. military takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and remains committed to ensuring personnel are held accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and relevant bilateral agreements,” he wrote.
The $800 million THAAD developed by Lockheed Martin has been deployed to South Korea since 2017. USFK has described the battery as a tool meant to bolster South Korea’s defense against the North.
THAAD interceptors are designed to destroy incoming short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles by colliding with them directly, rather than using an explosive warhead.
