Presidential office changes its stance that Yoon ‘scolded’ military authorities

Members of the Cho Gook Innovation Party\'s “Special Committee to Investigate Suspicions of Presidential Office Intervention in the Investigation of the Death of the Late Marine Chae” hold a press conference in front of the Civil Affairs Office of the High Officials Crime Investigation Division at the Government Complex in Seoul on the morning of March 3, accusing President Yoon Seok-yul in connection with the Chae case. Yonhap News Agency

The presidential office completely denied the so-called “VIP rage rumor” that President Yoon Suk-yeol reprimanded the military authorities over the results of the investigation into the Marine Corps' investigation into the death of Corporal Chae Su-geun, but it has changed its stance that Yoon “scolded” the military authorities. Concerns are also being raised in the ruling camp, saying, “The problem with this is that he lied politically.”

“When the accident occurred, (military officials) were scolded once by Yoon, and then they were scolded again because the defense secretary reported that Park Jung-hoon (the then head of the Marine Corps' investigation team) was investigating,” a senior official at the presidential office said in a phone interview on May 31, referring to Yoon's alleged pressure on the investigation into the death of Chae. Park was scolded,” he said. “The Defense Minister added (the matters to be investigated) and sent it after finding the case that was referred to the police,” he said, adding, “It's clear that there was nothing wrong with the president's instructions.”

This is an acknowledgment by the presidential office that Yoon was briefed on the Marine Corps’ investigation into the Chae case and raised concerns about it.

On June 3, the presidential office began to calm down the controversy as it grew, saying the senior official's comments were inaccurate. However, the senior official made similar statements to multiple other media outlets, including, "The president scolded the Marine Corps’ investigation team for correcting the situation because they made many suspects, which did not conform to the Military Court Act."

The remarks of the senior official contradict the explanation of the presidential office last year. The presidential office has completely denied the allegation, saying it has never reported the death case to Yoon. At a plenary session of the National Assembly Steering Committee on August 30 last year, Cho Tae-yong, former head of the National Security Office, said, “It is true that a meeting of the chief secretaries was held on July 31, but the case of Corporal Chae was never reported. When asked by Min Byung-deok, the lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) whether the Office of National Security had reported to Yoon about the case, Cho replied, “We have not reported anything about the investigation."

Some in the ruling camp are also concerned about the presidential office's response. They said that Yoon did not clarify the facts in the beginning and further raised suspicions with a "false explanation." A former prosecutor from the ruling camp said in a phone interview, “If the president had been honest in the beginning and said that he thought it was problematic that Park Jung-hoon set the scope of the investigation like that and asked him to correct it, it would have been legally defensible. But the problem is that he lied politically.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.