The South Korean colonel who accused the president of whitewashing was acquitted

A South Korean Marine colonel facing charges of insubordination and defamation after accusing President Yoon Suk Yeol of whitewashing an investigation into the death of a Marine was acquitted by a military court on Thursday.

A public outcry over the issue Colonel Park Jung-hun rocked South Korea last year, prompting opposition lawmakers to introduce a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate his allegations. The political standoff intensified as Mr. Yoon vetoed the bill three times and the opposition threatened to impeach him.

Mr. Yoon was finally announced impeachment By the opposition-dominated National Assembly, but for a different reason: his imposition of a six-hour martial law last month, during which he was accused of sending troops into the Assembly and said it was trying to paralyze his government. He was also accused of ordering the arrest of his political enemies.

A few months earlier, the opposition pointed to the prosecution of Col. Park as an example of how Mr. Yoon’s government abused its power to silence dissent.

In a ruling Thursday, a three-judge panel at Seoul’s Central District Military Court cleared Colonel Park of insubordination and defamation of high-ranking military officers. He denied the charges, saying they were filed in response to efforts to hold senior South Korean Marine Corps officers accountable for the death of Lance Cpl. Chae Su-geun in July 2023.

Lance Corporal Chae and other Marines were sent into central Seoul to search for missing residents after the city was hit by floods, but they were not given life jackets and ordered to wear knee-high rubber boots that impeded their movement as they crossed. fast-moving, waist-deep floodwaters. Lance Corporal Chae was swept away and later found dead.

Colonel Park, who led the investigation into the incident, concluded that eight senior officers, including the commander of the 1st Marine Division, Major General Im Seong-geun, were responsible for the death of Lance Corporal Chae through negligence.

He later accused the Ministry of Defense of whitewashing his inquiry and absolving senior military officials of responsibility. He blamed Mr Yoon, who he said was “furious” after his report said senior commanders were responsible for the death. Colonel Park cited the Marine Corps commander as a source for knowledge of Mr. Yoon’s commotion, but the commander declined to make such a statement.

Colonel Park said he resisted pressure from the Ministry of Defense to remove the names of senior officers such as Major General Im as criminal suspects and sent their files to the national police for further investigation, as required by law. The Ministry of Defense retracted the documents and later sent the police a revised version that named only two of the eight suspects, both of whom were low-ranking lieutenant colonels.

Mr. Yoon did not address Colonel Park’s allegation against him and was not charged in the case. But Colonel Park was accused of defaming his superiors and disobeying orders to delay sending his documents to the police.

The court-martial panel said in its ruling Thursday that the charge of insubordination could not stand because the Marine Corps leadership had no right to delay sending Colonel Park’s findings to the police. He also said there was insufficient evidence that the colonel intended to slander his superiors.

Efforts by the opposition to launch a parliamentary inquiry into Mr. Yoon’s role in Colonel Park’s case have been sidetracked by the political turmoil caused by his impeachment.

“There is a long way to go to find the truth about Lance Corporal Chae’s death,” Colonel Park said at a news conference after the verdict on Thursday.