Shin Beom-cheol, Deputy Minister of National Defense, Says "No External Pressure on Corporal Chae"

At the National Assembly, "Not an order to remove the suspect from the Marine Corps Command, but a careful review"

Deputy Minister of National Defense Shin Beom-cheol denied allegations that the Presidential Office intervened in the investigation process conducted by the Marine Corps investigation team regarding the death of the late Corporal Chae Su-geun.

Shin Beom-chul, Deputy Minister of National Defense, is attending the 4th meeting of the Democratic Party's West Sea Civil Servant Death Incident Task Force held at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 7th. Photo by National Assembly Press Photographers Group

On the afternoon of the 10th, before meeting with Kim Byung-joo, the opposition party's secretary of the National Defense Committee at the National Assembly, Deputy Minister Shin told reporters, when asked whether it was true that the National Security Office instructed to exclude Marine Corps 1st Division Commander Lim Seong-geun from the suspects of negligent homicide, "I understand that such a fact does not exist."

Regarding the reason why Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-seop approved the Marine Corps investigation team's report to apply negligent homicide charges to Commander Lim and seven others and transfer the case to the police, but then instructed to withhold the transfer of the investigation results after one day, he explained, "Because even the junior officers who were searching together with Corporal Chae inevitably had to be included in the investigation, a careful review was instructed."

In response to reports that he sent a text message to Marine Corps Commander Kim Gye-hwan saying "exclude the division commander from the suspects," he claimed, "I never gave instructions via text message, and by phone, I conveyed that 'there is a need to carefully review the situation, so let's discuss it thoroughly after the minister returns from his business trip'."

He added, "In the process of investigating the unfortunate accident involving Corporal Chae, other legal aspects must be considered, and since the Minister of National Defense is on an overseas business trip, the essence of the matter is to review it until he returns," and continued, "The military lives and dies by orders. It is my personal opinion that the minister's instructions should be carried out."

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