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In the midst of controversy over the ‘reduction of responsibility’ in the case of the late Corporal Chae Su-geun, who died while looking for a missing person in Yecheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do, the Ministry of National Defense ordered Colonel A, the head of the Marine Corps investigation team, to withhold the police transfer and not to specify the charges in the transfer data. It was reported on the 8th that it was immediately after submitting the Coincidentally, it was after the report to the presidential office that Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop changed his attitude toward dealing with the case to the point where he actually shredded the contents of the investigation report that had even been approved.
On the afternoon of the 30th of last month, Colonel A, the head of the Marine Corps investigation team, reported to Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop that he would be charged with manslaughter and other charges of manslaughter and transferred them to the police to Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop. After reviewing the investigation report, Minister Lee approved without any objection.
Afterwards, he heard that Colonel A told an official from the Marine Corps Command to “submit the report to the National Security Office in the Presidential Office.” He refused, saying that Colonel A was “a matter under investigation.” However, Commander Kim Gye-hwan of the Marine Corps again instructed to ‘submit the data for the press briefing to be held tomorrow to the Security Office’, and Colonel A handed over this material to the Security Office through the Marine Corps Public Affairs Office at 6:42 pm on the same day.
On the 31st, the day after the data was submitted, the media briefing and explanation of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee on the incident announced by the Ministry of National Defense four days earlier were suddenly canceled. On this day, Minister Lee Jong-seop also gave an order to ‘suspend the transfer of the police’. At a regular briefing on the 7th, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Jeon Ha-gyu said, “Before (Minister Lee) departs on a business trip abroad on the 31st, ‘As additional legal review is needed, put off the police transfer until after (his) return to business,’ through Commander Kim. I ordered (to Colonel A),” he said. He also explained, “The Minister of Justice (Defense) accepted the recommendation of the Office of Justice Management that it would be appropriate not to specify the charges because it could affect the investigation, but to hand over only data related to the facts, and the minister instructed that.” It is said that Minister Lee himself gave instructions to virtually overturn the investigation report he had approved the day before.
In this regard, the Ministry of National Defense explains that Colonel A violated this order and handed over the data to the police to ‘protest’. However, Colonel A’s lawyer, Kim Gyeong-ho, told the Hankyoreh on the 8th, “It was 9:30 a.m. on the 2nd that we originally decided to hand over the data to the police, and it was 10:51 a.m. on the same day that we were instructed by Commander Kim to ‘stop the transfer. In minutes, it was already after handing over the data to the police.” It is argued that there is a ‘time difference’ between Minister Lee’s instructions and delivery to Colonel A.
Attorney Kim also claimed that on the 31st of last 메이저놀이터month, Colonel A received five or six phone calls from Judicial Officer of the Ministry of National Defense Yoo Jae-eun and was also told to “include only negligent people in the investigation report.” “When Col. A asked Judicial Officer Yoo, ‘A person who is negligent, did you mean the battalion commander (to which Corporal Chae belongs, not the division commander, who is in charge)?’, Judicial Officer Yoo replied ‘Yes’. This is a part that can be accepted as a request to delete the charges against division commander Lim Seong-geun and others specified in the report.
All in all, since this happened after Colonel A submitted related materials to the President’s office, people inside and outside the military are saying that the change in attitude of the Ministry of National Defense may have been influenced by pressure from the President’s office. Spokesman Jeon Ha-gyu denied, saying, “The involvement of the upper ranks is not true at all.” Multiple presidential office officials also drew the line, saying, “It is nonsense.”
On this day, the Military Human Rights Center held a press conference at its office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, and the command, including Division Commander Lim, said, “I will go down to the knee in a checkerboard style and carefully explore while poking.” ” he pointed out. Looking at the contents of the KakaoTalk conversations of the corporal’s unit, which were released to the public, Division Commander Lim ordered ‘artillery is inefficient in particular’ and ‘to conduct a checkerboard search and reconnaissance’ at 4:22 pm on the 18th, the day of the accident. The Artillery is the unit to which Corporal Chae belonged. Division commander Lim also ordered ‘Maintain basic military posture (especially when a broadcasting vehicle arrives)’, ‘Insufficient wearing of clothes, and work wearing red tees as much as possible so that the Marines can stand out.’
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps held a position dismissal review committee at the Marine Corps Command on the morning of the same day, resolved the dismissal of Colonel A, and notified him of the result.