[2020 National Audit] "Military Ignored Northwest Drift Prediction of Attacked Official"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] It has been alleged that the military ignored a report from the Coast Guard predicting that Mr. A (47), a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official who was shot and killed, drifted northwest near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea the morning after he went missing.

On the 8th, Lee Chae-ik, a member of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee from the People Power Party, cited data submitted by the Korea Coast Guard, stating that the Incheon Coast Guard sent a search plan document with hourly drift prediction results for Mr. A around 9 a.m. on the 22nd to the Minister of National Defense through the Marine Corps Commandant.

The document included a prediction that if Mr. A went missing at 8 or 9 a.m. on the 21st, he would be drifting northwest of Soyeonpyeongdo Island, only 5 to 6 km from the NLL, by 2 p.m. on the 22nd. Nevertheless, both the Coast Guard and the military planned to search only south of Soyeonpyeongdo Island on the 22nd, continuing the previous day’s approach.

Although the Marine Corps Commandant immediately forwarded the document to the Naval Operations Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Ministry of National Defense, the military did not raise any objections to the Coast Guard’s plan to search only south of Soyeonpyeongdo Island. In fact, the Coast Guard and the military searched only the southern area excluding the northwest of Soyeonpyeongdo Island on the 21st and 22nd, and only expanded the search area northwestward on the 23rd, the day after Mr. A’s death.

Rep. Lee said, "If the Coast Guard and the military had expanded the search area northwest of Soyeonpyeongdo Island based on the drift prediction results from the early stages of the disappearance, Mr. A might have been found before crossing into North Korean waters," and criticized, "The state, which should be responsible for the lives of our citizens, is hastily avoiding responsibility."

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