The South Korean marines have been despatched in after monsoon rains flooded a rural part of the nation’s heartland final July. They have been in search of lacking residents in waist-high floodwaters, however they weren’t sporting life jackets. Nor did they’ve buoys or security tubes.
When the bottom gave method, 5 of them have been swept away within the churning brown water and one, Lance Cpl. Chae Su-geun, disappeared downstream, yelling for assist, and was later discovered useless.
Practically a yr later, the loss of life of the 20-year-old marine has turn out to be an impeachment menace for South Korea’s chief, President Yoon Suk Yeol. And it has raised the prospect of political instability within the nation, a key United States ally in making a bulwark in opposition to North Korea and China.
The South Korean navy isn’t any stranger to tragic accidents, however this newest episode has advanced into the primary main political disaster for Mr. Yoon since his get together’s crushing defeat in parliamentary elections final month. The profession navy officer who investigated Lance Corporal Chae’s loss of life has accused the Protection Ministry of whitewashing the probe and absolving high navy brass of accountability — all underneath strain from Mr. Yoon.
Mr. Yoon has indirectly addressed the allegation, and final week the president vetoed a invoice pushed by way of Parliament by the opposition calling for a particular prosecutor to research the declare. The president needs authorities companies just like the police and prosecutors to complete investigating the assorted allegations earlier than discussing different steps.
However there’s large public help for appointing a particular prosecutor, surveys present, as many South Koreans have grown distrustful of Mr. Yoon and authorities prosecutors. Mr. Yoon’s opponents say that whereas prosecutors have launched legal investigations into his critics and journalists accused of spreading “pretend information,” they haven’t investigated allegations of corruption in opposition to his spouse, Kim Keon Hee, with the identical eagerness. (This and a string of different scandals contributed to Mr. Yoon’s poor displaying in final month’s election.)
The opposition has threatened to start impeachment proceedings in opposition to Mr. Yoon if he retains resisting its demand.
“The Yoon regime shouldn’t overlook classes of historical past,” stated Lee Jae-myung, the chief of the liberal opposition, referring to former presidents who’ve been imprisoned or impeached for corruption and abuse of energy.
The opposition has an even bigger majority in a newly elected Parliament that was inaugurated Thursday. It plans to move one other special-prosecutor invoice but it surely stays to be seen whether or not it has the votes to override a presidential veto or sufficient public help and incriminating proof in opposition to Mr. Yoon to start impeachment proceedings in opposition to him.
Days after the loss of life of Lance Corporal Chae, a probe launched by the South Korean Marine Corps concluded that he and his fellow marines had not been given life jackets or security tubes. The knee-high rubber boots they have been issued impeded their motion within the water. The navy has admitted to the protection lapses.
The inquiry additionally concluded that eight supervisors, together with Maj. Gen. Im Seong-geun, commander of the first Marine Division, have been accountable for Lance Corporal Chae’s loss of life by way of negligence. The then-defense minister, Lee Jong-sup, signed off on the findings to be forwarded, as required by legislation, to the nationwide police for additional investigation. He greenlighted the investigators’ plan to transient the information media.
“However in lower than 24 hours, all the selections have been reversed, and all the pieces become a multitude,” stated Col. Park Jung-hun, the highest investigator.
Mr. Lee ordered Colonel Park to cancel the media briefing that had been deliberate for the following day. The Protection Ministry retracted the recordsdata Colonel Park had despatched to the police. It later despatched the police a revised model that named solely two of the unique eight, each lieutenant colonels, in reference to Lance Corporal Chae’s loss of life.
Colonel Park has stated that the highest Marine commander advised him that when Mr. Yoon discovered of the colonel’s findings, he “flew right into a rage” and referred to as Mr. Lee to precise his anger. (The commander denied making such an announcement.) Colonel Park stated the president’s response was adopted by strain from the Protection Ministry to expunge the names of high officers like Main Basic Im as legal suspects from his report.
Mr. Yoon has indirectly addressed the allegation, and his workplace has declined to remark, pending investigations by the police and the Corruption Investigation Workplace For Excessive-Rating Officers, a authorities company. Mr. Lee has denied being pressured by Mr. Yoon’s workplace. And analysts have struggled to elucidate why Mr. Yoon could have taken such an motion.
However Colonel Park has stood by his allegation. The Protection Ministry has moved to court-martial him on fees of insubordination. Officers say that he ignored an order to delay handing over the investigation recordsdata to the police. The colonel says that the recordsdata have been already en path to the police when he acquired the order. He has stated he’s being persecuted for resisting strain to take away the names of senior officers from his report.
Throughout Colonel Park’s court-martial trial this month, Yoo Jae-eun, an aide to the protection minister, was referred to as to testify. She stated that when she referred to as the colonel underneath Mr. Lee’s instruction, she advised that he not identify any legal suspects or cite any suspected crime in his report. She insisted that the suggestion was meant not as undue strain however as “one of many choices” for the colonel to think about.
One other marine who was swept into floodwaters and has since been discharged has sued Main Basic Im for skilled negligence. He claims that his unit was ordered into the harmful waters to please the overall, whose obsession with publicity he stated guided his models’ disaster-relief actions. Main Basic Im has referred to as the lawsuit “libelous.”
Mr. Yoon has expressed condolences over Lance Corporal Chae’s loss of life and criticized the marines’ operation within the floodwaters, however he has been silent on the allegation of unlawful strain. However South Koreans have typically discovered selections by Mr. Yoon “mysterious,” Lee Jin-young, an editorial author on the conservative day by day Dong-A Ilbo, stated in her column. When Mr. Yoon made “impulsive” selections, his employees lacked the braveness to face up to his “rage” and converse up, she stated.
“As an alternative, when the president hits the incorrect goal, they draw a bull’s-eye round it,” Ms. Lee wrote. “As this repeats, scandals erupt and his approval rankings fall.”
