SEOUL: A South Korean army officer has been arrested and charged with corruption while serving in Iraq, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

The 30-year-old captain is suspected of accepting $25,000 in cash as well as a camera and other goods in bribes from an Iraqi builder who then received favourable treatment, a ministry spokesman said.

He said the soldier allowed the Iraqi builder to extend a deadline for construction at South Korea’s military base in Iraq.

Military prosecutors arrested the captain — along with a master sergeant also suspected of involvement in the same case — late last month, shortly after South Korea withdrew its troops from Iraq, he said. The spokesman refused to identify the arrested soldiers or the Iraqi firm.—AFP