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Amid rising calls for revisions to the Status of Forces Agreement, the pact that governs the treatment of U.S. military personnel here, local civic groups plan to file a lawsuit claiming that the SOFA is unconstitutional.

"We are doing preparatory work to launch a constitutional petition against the SOFA," said Cha Seung-yul, an official at the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), a prominent local civic group. "I can't give the exact time when we will lodge the suit, but it is correct to say that we're going ahead with plans to do so."

He said the CCEJ is one of a coalition of about 30 civic groups that was formed last year with the common aim of correcting "inequalities" in the SOFA. He called the coalition the "People's Action for Reform of the Unjust Republic of Korea/U.S. SOFA Agreement."

"We're going to claim in the suit that the SOFA goes against the Constitution, as the government revised a part of the agreement in 1991 without parliamentary consent, which means that Korea began bearing a part of the cost of stationing U.S. troops here," the official said. "The government must obtain the consent of the National Assembly when it signs a pact that puts an added financial burden on the people."

He also claimed that while the agreement guarantees the rights of U.S. military personnel, it infringes upon Koreans' basic right to equality and other rights guaranteed under the Korean Constitution.

Unconfirmed reports said the lawsuit could be filed as early as this month.

The call for a SOFA revision is not new. Every Friday, members of a civic group stage rallies outside Yongsan Garrison, the main U.S. Army base in Seoul, holding signs protesting the SOFA and crimes by U.S. personnel.

Local legal experts and lawyers have also held public hearings to denounce "unjust" clauses in the 1966 agreement, which was revised in 1991.

The public's demands for another revision have intensified in the wake of the short-lived escape from U.S. custody of an American soldier who was accused of murder, and a U.S. Air Force fighter's recent accidental bombing of a village in Kyonggi Province.

Though the murder suspect was apprehended shortly after fleeing, the incident provoked renewed complaints from activists who have demanded stipulations in the agreement that would allow South Korea to take immediate custody of U.S. service members charged with crimes. At the time of his escape, the murder suspect was being held by U.S authorities.

With regard to last week's accidental bombing, activists pointed out that, in accordance with the SOFA, the Korean government would have to pay out a quarter of any compensation for victims of the incident.

Discussions between Seoul and Washington on another SOFA revision were planned for last month but were postponed.