Sexual Harassment and Embezzlement of Public Funds... Serious Military Discipline Breakdown

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu Reporter] It has been pointed out that military discipline has deteriorated excessively as the military failed to detect a civilian intrusion into the Jeju Naval Base for over an hour, and incidents of the "three major misconducts of public officials"?embezzlement of military funds, sexual crimes, and drunk driving?have occurred one after another.

According to military authorities on the 16th, on the 7th, when two civilians cut through the barbed wire of the Jeju Naval Base and trespassed, the core function of the active surveillance system that detects the movement of objects was disabled, and no alarm sounded. The "5-minute standby team" responded sluggishly, arriving two hours after the intrusion, and the reporting system also did not function properly, revealing comprehensive flaws in the Navy's surveillance, reporting system, and response measures.

Military discipline issues have been ongoing for some time, but instead of improving, the situation continues unabated.

Colonel A of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) is currently facing charges of forced sexual harassment. In November last year, after a company dinner, Colonel A took a taxi with a female employee. It is reported that Colonel A sexually harassed the female employee after arriving at the destination. Upon learning of this, DAPA suspended Colonel A from his position. Colonel A denies the charges, and the first trial is scheduled for next week.

Mr. B, who works at the Combat Supplies Center of the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality (DATQ), embezzled over 240 million won of public funds over five years from 2015 to last year. Responsible for accounting tasks, Mr. B diverted funds by transferring certain amounts to his personal account while disbursing travel expenses to employees. The annual embezzlement amount reached 80 million won. DATQ failed to detect Mr. B's embezzlement for five years but belatedly noticed discrepancies in the settlement amount during the accounting closing process in December last year. DATQ currently suspects additional embezzlement and has reported the case to the Dongdaemun Police Station in Seoul.

Drunk driving incidents involving DATQ employees were also discovered belatedly. Mr. C and Mr. D, affiliated with DATQ, were caught for drunk driving in December 2016 and were sentenced to license suspension and a fine of 1 million won each. However, they did not report this to their affiliated institution. When this was uncovered during a regular audit by a higher authority, DATQ belatedly imposed disciplinary measures. DATQ stated that these incidents occurred before the enforcement of stricter drunk driving laws such as the Yoon Chang-ho Act, and since the employees did not voluntarily report to their institution, the punishment was delayed.

An investigation is also underway regarding allegations of recruitment irregularities at the Agency for Defense Development (ADD). In 2018, ADD conducted a review for converting non-regular employees to regular positions. However, the selection committee members and the criteria for recruitment were not clearly specified. Investigators are probing the possibility that the committee members approved the conversion of specific individuals to regular positions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.