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A Korean female worker at a U.S. military compound in Pusan has claimed that she was laid off over a sexual harassment case involving a U.S. civilian employee.

The woman, identified as Kim, 32, lodged a complaint with the U.S. military's personnel affairs department after she was fired on Feb. 17, demanding a review of her layoff case.

The department is scheduled to convene a committee to review her case Thursday.

She claims her dismissal was a retaliation for the 1994 harassment case against the American worker.

The U.S. employee was dismissed over the sexual harassment case.

Kim was working for a support group of the Eighth U.S. Army at a Pusan camp before the firing.

She claims that the U.S. military had discriminated against her because of the action taken against the U.S. employee for harassment.

Kim was quoted as saying that her senior officers unilaterally transferred her to other positions against her wishes and reprimanded her over minor mistakes while at work.

She was reported to have claimed that a 23-year-old U.S. enlisted man once asked her to watch pornography on the Internet at her office.

Kim allegedly quarrelled with the soldier over his attempt to sexually harass her. She then reported the case to her section chief, complaining about the harassment.

But her section chief unilaterally suspended her from duty for two days after hearing from the soldier about the case.

A local labor office in Pusan reported Kim's case to the Ministry of Labor, saying that her harassment was an example of a major human rights abuse and violation of labor rights at U.S. military bases.

The ministry sent a letter to the U.S. side, urging the committee reviewing her case to conduct a thorough and objective investigation into her claim over sexual harassment.

Civic groups advocating her rights pledged to defend her at the committee meeting in a move to eliminate sexual harassment and discrimination against Korean civilian workers of the U.S. military.

However, the U.S. military claimed that Kim had often refused to follow orders from her section chiefs, adding that she also refused to abide by the due procedure of leave.

The military personnel department also pointed out that she left the workplace without official leave. It added that Kim had badly treated her clients who wanted to get passes for vehicles.

Sources cautiously predict that it would be hard for her to prove that her dismissal was directly linked to the 1994 sexual harassment case.

But they added that the U.S. military has come under attack for the alleged harassment and layoff case amid mounting outcries for its brutal killing of more than 100 Korean civilian refugees at Nogun-ri, a small village in Youngdong, Chungchong-pukto.

National sentiment has recently gone against the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) in the wake of bombing exercises at a training range on an islet off the west coast near Hwasong, Kyonggi-do.

A recent bombing accident caused injuries to several farmers there and caused property damage to their houses.