On Saturday night, Haeundae Beach, the major tourist spot in Busan, was in commotion as visitors set off firecrackers and held parties without wearing masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

t turned out that the unrest was due to the rave party held by United States Forces Korea (USFK) and other foreigners celebrating U.S. Memorial Day.

According to the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency and witnesses, the foreigners danced, drank, and set off firecrackers on and around the beach from Saturday afternoon through early Sunday. Many of them were not wearing face masks and violating social distancing rules.

Police said they received at least 38 complaints from residents, who voiced concerns over such dangerous acts regarding quarantine. The police sent dozens of officers to the scene but could not stop people from partying. Those parties were a clear violation of the Korean government's social distancing guidelines and the quarantine rules of the USFK.

Korea is still struggling to stem the continued spread of the Covid-19 across the country and is enforcing strict antivirus schemes.

The violation will also deal a blow to Busan quarantine authorities, who have been struggling with quarantine due to an explosion in the number of Covid-19 cases this year.

The commotion from USFK soldiers also came after the nation’s second-largest city had just lowered its social distancing level from 2 to 1.5 last Monday as they believed that they had somewhat stabilized the spread of the virus in the city.

As part of relaxed restrictions, municipal officials had planned to adjust quarantine rules for some facilities, extending closing hours for restaurants and bars from 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

The USFK soldiers and other foreigners seemed to ignore the city's quarantine efforts by throwing a frantic party.

It was not the first time U.S. soldiers violated Korea's quarantine regulation.

A similar situation occurred at Haeundae Beach last summer. At the time, dozens of unmasked U.S. soldiers also set off firecrackers and drank alcohol while completely ignoring officials’ requests to follow the quarantine rules.

The USFK said it would impose a fine of up to 3 million won ($2,688) on soldiers who violated quarantine regulations, such as not wearing masks at the beach and speaking in loud voices.

Due to their repeated violations, Koreans expressed anger with the USFK soldiers' behaviors of simply disregarding the local quarantine situation when locals do their best to cooperate with the quarantine situation while accepting the inconvenience in their daily lives.

"This is outright unacceptable," Kim Kwang-mo, 34, a resident of Busan, told Korea Biomedical Review on Monday. "If the parties at Haeundae lead to another massive outbreak, the Korean people will not be able to forgive the violations made by the USFK soldiers as we have endured so much to stop the spread of the virus."

Even local officials called for a new regulation that can more effectively crackdown on quarantine violations by foreigners.

According to a Haeundae District official, the Infectious Disease Prevention Act allows people to remove their masks only when they are at least two meters from one another and imposes a fine of up to 100,000 won on violators.

It also bans eating by a group of five or more people and slaps a 50,000 won fine for fireworks on the beach.

The problem is that it is not easy to impose fines on foreigners.

Haeundae officials and the police also failed to slap fines on any violators. They only issued warnings to 360 people, asking them to adhere to Korea’s quarantine regulations.

“If we ask foreigners to present their IDs to impose a fine for violating quarantine rules, they simply reject the request,” another Haeundae municipal official said. “Since they cannot be detained, we can only ask them for cooperation in following the quarantine rules.”

To enforce regulations properly, the government needs to stipulate punishment for refusing to provide identification for quarantine violations, he added.

The official also stressed that the USFK should thoroughly educate their forces to observe Korea's quarantine rules before letting them out on leave.

Faced with mounting public anger, the USFK vowed to cooperate with the local police investigation. "The U.S. military is aware of what happened at Haeundae Beach," a USFK spokesperson said. "We are collaborating with the South Korean police in charge of the investigation."

The official stressed that the USFK is committed to being a good neighbor and maintaining a strong ROK-U.S. alliance.

To turn the alliance slogan, "We go together," into practice, the USFK needs to develop detailed steps to stop such violations from happening instead of conducting an aftermath investigation, according to SNS comments made by Koreans. The USFK should carry out probes and hold the quarantine violators accountable, they said.