UIJEONGBU (Yonhap) -- A South Korean local court on Monday sentenced two soldiers of the U.S. Forces Korea to two-year suspended prison terms for beating a taxi driver last year.

   The American soldiers, identified only by their initials J and C, were charged with injuring a cab driver who had refused to take them to Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, in June last year. The reason the driver denied service to the soldiers is unknown, according to the statement released by the court.

   The Uijeongbu District Court sentenced them to six months in prison each, suspended for two years, convicting them of inflicting injury on the driver.

   Some 28,500 American servicemen are in the country to deter against North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.