"Is Ahn Cheol-soo's Son Not Returning? Impossible According to KATUSA System"

Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae is touching her glasses while attending the political sector government questioning held at the National Assembly plenary session in Yeouido, Seoul on the 14th.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ga-yeon] A rebuttal has emerged claiming that the allegations of 'special leave' during the military service of Chu Mi-ae, Minister of Justice's son Seo Mo (27), raised by duty soldier Hyun Mo, are impossible within the system.

A, who introduced himself as having served as a KATUSA in the Headquarters Company of the Camp Red Cloud (CRC) division of the U.S. 8th Army Korea Support Group during the same period as Seo, appeared on tbs radio's "Kim Eo-jun's News Factory" on the 14th and stated, "There are discrepancies between the news reports and the actual operational system of the unit."

A said, "Even within the same KATUSA unit, there can be detailed differences such as rules that must be commonly followed or the way returning soldiers report after leave. Therefore, KATUSA soldiers have differing opinions based on their own unit's standards, saying 'This could be possible,' or 'This is impossible.'"

He added, "From what I saw in the news, this situation could never happen in our division headquarters company support team," and explained, "Returning personnel stop by the support team to record their return times in the return log, so the duty soldier on watch is inevitably the first to know if someone has not returned."

He continued, "On the 23rd, the duty soldier should have been the first to know about any non-return. After verifying with personnel who served as duty soldiers in the personnel department, none of those on duty on the 23rd and 24th recalled any non-return incidents," and claimed, "Duty shifts are repeated countless times unless there is a non-return or an accident. If they had known about Seo's parents' occupations as they do now, they would have clearly remembered."

Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae arrived at the Government Seoul Office on the afternoon of the 11th to attend the major issues meeting chaired by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and is moving to the venue. Photo by Yonhap News

He further explained, "From what we confirmed, Seo extended his sick leave once, and when it was judged to be excessive, he applied for an additional sick leave extension. Since he had already extended once, further sick leave extension was difficult, so he used annual leave and updated the unit diary on Monday. That was all, and there were no issues," he said.

A emphasized, "It is impossible that they only found out on the evening of the third day. That means they failed to identify the non-return more than four times: Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning," adding, "The unit diary, military service status board, and return log must all be checked and consistent to report no abnormalities. It makes no sense to suddenly find out on the 25th."

Regarding the absence of the medical opinion document in the military records, he said, "The KATUSA personnel department duty soldier uses two networks: the U.S. military network and the Korean military network. When a return report or any special incident occurs, the duty soldier processes it via email on the U.S. military network," and added, "If the record is not found on the Korean military network, it is usually submitted through the U.S. military telephone network or the U.S. military plain internet network as part of the reporting process."

Earlier, according to a transcript released on the 9th by Yoon Han-hong, a member of the People Power Party, Hyun said, "Seo spoke on the phone at the time without any sign of apology and naturally said he was at home," and "When told to return, he agreed, which made me wonder what was going on."

Hyun stated, "I was definitely not the duty soldier on the return date, and the duty soldier on Sunday the 25th was certain. Since there was no evening roll call on the 23rd and 24th, the non-return was only recognized on the 25th," and added, "KATUSA does not conduct roll call on weekend evenings, and the soldier's return status can only be confirmed during the Sunday roll call."

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