SEOUL, South Korea—Reports say that a South Korean court has sentenced a U.S. soldier to 10 years in prison for raping a teenage girl.
Yonhap news agency says that Uijeongbu District Court convicted the 21-year-old private Tuesday of sexually assaulting the girl several times after breaking into her small boarding room near Seoul in September.
YTN television network carried a similar report. Court officials couldn't immediately confirm the reports.
The Foreign Ministry says the verdict would be the longest prison term for an American solider stationed in South Korea in nearly 20 years.
In 1993, a U.S. soldier was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a South Korean bar employee.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are in South Korea.
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