The investigation truth must be told to us

If an invisible hand intervened to save a two-star general, that’s a more serious crime. The truth behind the case must be found.

The military investigation into the death of Marine Lance Corporal Chae Su-geun on July 19 while on a rescue mission for any possible survivors from the flood in North Chungcheong is turning into an internal fight in the Armed Forces. At that time, many people criticized the Marines for dispatching soldiers to the spot without instructing them to wear life vests. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup received a briefing about the results of the investigation and sent them to the police. But controversy arose in the process of transmitting the investigation results to the police.

Immediately after the death of the corporal, the Marines set up an investigation team led by a colonel surnamed Park. The chief investigator held eight officers, including Major Gen. Lim Seong-geun, the commander of the 1st Division of the Marine Corps., accountable for negligent homicide and reported it to the defense minister on July 30. The minister reportedly approved the investigation results after asking a few questions.

The investigation results had to be transferred to the police because of the revised act on the court martial. In that process, the defense ministry and Col. Park clashed. The colonel claimed that he referred the results signed off by the defense minister to the North Gyeongsang Police on August 2. But the ministry insists that it ordered the colonel to wait until the defense minister returns from his trip to Uzbekistan, as it required a further legal review. Then the ministry retrieved the investigation results from the police and dismissed the colonel from his post for disobeying orders after denouncing him as “head of a collective insubordination.”

The colonel refuted the allegation by the ministry through his lawyer, who said the colonel had never received such an order to wait from the ministry. The colonel only admitted to having been notified of the personal opinion of an officer handling legal affairs in the ministry and having received a text message from the vice defense minister.

After the strange development of the case, a civic group claimed that the presidential office is behind it. Others linked it to the pressure from the presidential security office to save Commander Lim, who had worked at the Blue House under President Lee Myung-bak. The defense ministry denied it. But it provoked controversy by abruptly canceling its planned announcement of the investigation results to the media and the legislature. But if somebody wanted to reverse what the defense minister approved, it could be an attempt to conceal or scale down the case. If an invisible hand intervened to save a two-star general, that’s a more serious crime. The truth behind the case must be found.