Colonel Park Jeong-hoon's Side: "The Case Began with 'Remove the Charge of Negligent Homicide for 8 People'"

Colonel Park's Lawyer MBC Radio Interview
"Final Decision Made but Reversed... Must Be External Pressure"

Kim Jung-min, the legal representative of Colonel Park Jung-hoon, former head of the Marine Corps Investigation Unit, stated regarding the request to hold a military prosecution investigation review committee, "The main point is that this crime (charge of leading a collective insubordination) is not even established, and structurally, the Ministry of National Defense prosecution team lacks fairness in conducting the investigation, so we are asking for a suspension of the investigation or a decision of non-prosecution."

Earlier, the side of Colonel Park, who was dismissed from his position as head of the Marine Corps Investigation Unit and charged with leading collective insubordination while investigating the death of the late Marine Corps Corporal Chae Su-geun, announced plans to apply for the convening of a military prosecution investigation review committee.

Former Marine Corps Investigation Unit Commander Park Jeong-hoon, who was booked on charges of 'leader of collective insubordination' related to the investigation of the late Corporal Chae Soo-geun, is waiting on the 11th in front of the Ministry of National Defense Prosecution Unit in Yongsan-gu, Seoul to make a statement. Photo by Yonhap News

On the 14th, Attorney Kim appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and said, "(Colonel Park) is an active-duty soldier, so it is practically difficult for various other national investigative agencies to intervene, but it would also be inappropriate to simply refuse the investigation while being an active-duty soldier," adding, "He thought that a judgment by a fair third-party institution, although it is not a legally binding judgment but rather a kind of advisory opinion, was the only available procedure, which is why he applied."

Attorney Kim explained that this controversy began with the Ministry of National Defense pressuring to "remove the part applying charges of professional negligence causing death to eight officers, including Lim Seong-geun, commander of the Marine Corps 1st Division." He said, "If you interpret the expression of the (Ministry of National Defense) Legal Affairs Manager, it ultimately means to limit the direct negligent parties, which implies restricting it to the commanders on site," adding, "In other words, it can only be interpreted as excluding division commanders or brigade commanders from the transfer target."

He continued, "It can only be political external pressure," and pointed out, "Because the responsible agency has already produced investigation results, asking to exclude those subjects is essentially no different from telling them not to investigate."

Attorney Kim said, "Moreover, in this case, explanations have already been given to the bereaved families, and the Minister of National Defense has already approved it, so even if such opinions were expressed before, it can only be seen as external pressure, and now that the final decision has been made, isn't this a process of reversing it again?" adding, "This must clearly be external pressure."

Regarding the subject of the external pressure, he said, "The Legal Affairs Manager is essentially not in a position to exercise independent authority," and "Although Colonel Park did not receive it directly, there was also the Deputy Minister's intention, so from that perspective, it can only be interpreted as the top leadership of the Ministry of National Defense."

However, the Ministry of National Defense maintains the position that it did not instruct to exclude the commander of the Marine Corps 1st Division from the suspects.

The Ministry of National Defense stated, "Minister Lee Jong-seop questioned whether even junior officers who participated in the search on site were guilty but did not mention any specific individuals."

Regarding the claim that the top leadership of the Ministry of National Defense exerted external pressure, it said, "The Deputy Minister of National Defense, following the Minister's instructions, after the Minister returned from a business trip, thoroughly reviewed the legal issues and instructed to transfer the case to the police."

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