CIO questions senior officials over young Marine's death as probe continues

A probe into alleged influence-peddling related to the death of a young Marine is expanding to top officials, possibly including those in the presidential office, as the CIO continues its investigation.

Marine Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. Kim Kye-hwan, center, appears at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, on Saturday, for questioning over an alleged influence-peddling case related to the death of a young Marine last year. [NEWS1]

A probe into alleged influence-peddling related to the death of a young Marine is expanding to top officials, possibly including those in the presidential office, as the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) continues its investigation.

Since late last month, the CIO has summoned three officials from the Defense Ministry and the Marine Corps, continuing its investigation despite speculation that President Yoon Suk Yeol will exercise his veto power against the special counsel probe bill unilaterally passed by the Democratic Party (DP) last Thursday.

The CIO said that it is focusing on its duties to conduct the investigation "regardless of whether or not a special counsel probe will be established" regarding Marine Lance Corporal Chae Su-geun’s death during post-flood rescue operations last July.

The CIO summoned and questioned Yoo Jae-eun, a legal affairs official at the Defense Ministry, late last month; Park Kyung-hoon, a former acting chief of the Defense Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Command, last Thursday; and Marine Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. Kim Kye-hwan on Saturday.

The three officials are accused of retrieving investigation records of the Marine Corps investigation unit, which were transferred to the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency, and intervening to exclude Lim Seong-geun, former commander of the Marine’s First Division, from a suspect list.

Col. Park Jung-hun, the Marine Corps’ former top investigator in charge of the initial probe into the case, claimed that Marine Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. Kim Kye-hwan ordered the investigation to be scaled down after a meeting presided over by President Yoon Suk Yeol on July 31 last year. The president was allegedly enraged about results that included Lim as a suspect. The results of the investigation into Chae's death were first reported to the president during the meeting.

Kim denied Park's claims during the CIO’s 14 hours of questioning on Saturday.

After the meeting, however, press briefings on the investigation results were canceled, and officials were ordered to withhold the referrals of investigation results to the police. Communications between the Presidential Office, the Defense Ministry and the Marine Corps began on the case shortly after the meeting.

The presidential office believes the Marine Corps investigation unit overstepped its boundaries by accusing eight commanders, including Lim, on charges of causing Chae's death through professional negligence. According to the amended military court’s law and presidential decree, the military should transfer a death case to the police as soon as suspected crimes are uncovered.

However, the law could be interpreted differently as there are no set standards on the concept and timing of "acknowledging the involvement of a crime."

DP Rep. Park Ju-min, who led the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee in 2021, stressed that the records must be “promptly reported to the police once a crime is discovered.”

Col. Park, however, argues that he transgressed no boundaries, as identifying suspects also falls within the scope of “recognizing criminal suspicion” during the investigation. Military officials must also submit a document for police referral that includes the suspect's name and accusations against them.

Observers say that if the Marine Corps investigation unit overstepped its rights, the Defense Ministry’s reinvestigation that scaled down the initial suspect list to just two battalion commanders, excluding Lim, could also be overstepping.

"If Col. Park’s identification of eight suspects is considered an override of power, then what the Defense Ministry’s investigation unit did in reducing suspects to battalion commanders through a reinvestigation is also an override,” an opposition official said, adding that such assertion is a way “to cover up the influence-peddling on the investigation by twisting the law.”

BY JEONG JIN-WOO, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]