Direct superior to fallen Corporal Chae applies for emergency relief to NHRCK

The commander of the 11th Artillery Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Division, heads to the Gyeongbuk Police Department‘s criminal riot squad headquarters in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, for an interrogation during the day on March 19, 2019. Yonhap News Agency

Lieutenant colonel Lee, former commander of the 7th Battalion of the Artillery Brigade of the 1st Marine Division, who was a direct superior to fallen Corporal Chae Su-geun, applied for emergency relief to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRCK), saying he was discriminated against by being excluded from various duties, education and meetings within the headquarters after Corporal Chae's death. Lim Sung-geun, the former commander of the 1st Marine Division, said that Lee's claims were untrue and that he was “not involved in the dismissal of his position.”

Lee's lawyer, Kim Kyung-ho, released the contents of the petition submitted by Lee to the NHRCK on June 13. In the petition, Lee said, "I apply for emergency relief to the NHRCK to stop the continued discriminatory abuse by the Marine Corps headquarters as soon as possible."

Lee is being investigated by the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency as a suspect in the death of Corporal Chae after the Ministry of National Defense's investigation headquarters reviewed the initial investigation records of the case last August. Lee alleged that he was subjected to discriminatory treatment by Lim from the time he was investigated by the Gyeongbuk Police Agency.

Lee wrote in the petition that Lim, who was a joint principal offender in Chae’s death case, excluded him from his duties and ordered him to be dispatched to another unit to prevent him from attending Chae’s funeral. He claimed that Lim excluded him from attending battalion commander-level training and meetings, even though he was still in the position of battalion commander. "None of these duties were assigned to me while I was separated," Lee said.

He said that Marine Corps Commandant Kim Kye-hwan also contributed to his isolation. "Kim also set out to save Lim," Lee wrote. "He thoroughly isolated the commander of the 7th Battalion by directly instructing the head of the personnel department of headquarters Marine Corps ‘not to talk about anything related and prevent the troops from contacting him.’" Lee said he attempted suicide in such a situation and later had to be admitted to a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital.

"At the time, the Marine Corps Investigation Team determined that Lee needed to be separated from his unit due to the need for investigation, which was accepted by the Marine Corps commander and dispatched to the Logistics Corps, a unit directly under the control of the Marine Corps," Lim said, adding, "I was not involved in Lee’s dismissal.”

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