Board of Audit and Inspection Launches Investigation into Alleged Inadequate Verification of North Korean GP Disablement

Investigation of Verification Team's Documentation from 2018

The Board of Audit and Inspection has launched an audit of the Ministry of National Defense. This is due to suspicions that the verification of the inoperability of the North Korean frontline guard posts (GPs) destroyed by North Korea under the 2018 'September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement' was inadequately conducted.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to government officials on the 22nd, under the September 19 Military Agreement concluded during the Moon Jae-in administration in 2018, both Koreas destroyed 10 GPs each within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), preserved one GP in its original form, withdrew personnel and equipment, and then conducted mutual on-site verification. At that time, the military authorities dispatched a verification team of 77 members, with 7 per North Korean GP, to conduct on-site investigations and announced that the North Korean GPs had been completely destroyed.

However, after North Korea declared a complete termination of the September 19 Agreement on November 23 last year and rapidly began restoring the destroyed GPs, it has been suggested that the underground facilities of the GPs might have been preserved. Following a request for an audit regarding suspicions of inadequate verification of North Korean GP inoperability by the 'Republic of Korea Defense Reserve Officers Group,' a gathering of former military generals, the Board of Audit and Inspection's Special Investigation Division began an audit of the Ministry of National Defense and others from the 18th.

Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik also raised suspicions about the Moon administration's inadequate verification of GP inoperability, stating, "At the time of (GP destruction), it appears that North Korea only destroyed the visible observation posts above ground and left the remaining underground facilities untouched," and added, "If repaired, they could be reoccupied immediately."

The Ministry of National Defense submitted documents prepared by the South Korean verification team that visited the North Korean destroyed and withdrawn GPs to the Board of Audit and Inspection. Auditors from the Board's Special Investigation Division dispatched to the Ministry are reportedly investigating related records. The Board of Audit and Inspection is known to focus on examining suspicions that the underground facilities' destruction was not properly verified during the on-site inspection of the destroyed North Korean GPs, and that reports from the verification team expressing doubts about inoperability were ignored.

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