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Koreans rally outside Seoul Station on June 1, 2024, in support of passing legislation for a special counsel probe into an alleged cover-up of an investigation into a Marine’s death and to condemn the Yoon administration. (Bang Jun-ho/The Hankyoreh)

In response to questions about alleged interference by the president in an investigation about the death of a Marine, a high-ranking official within the presidential office responded, “The Marine investigation team did not have investigation authority, and when they came out with a long list of suspects, contrary to what the Military Court Act stipulates, I imagine the president scolded them and told them to fix that.”

Phone records indicate that President Yoon Suk-yeol spoke directly with then-Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup regarding the investigation. In light of this and other evidence that Yoon indeed lost his temper after being briefed on the investigation, the presidential office has essentially acknowledged the president’s interference while claiming it wasn’t illegal. 

Up until the phone records were publicized, the presidential office and associated parties merely denied that Yoon had an angry outburst and spoke on the phone with his defense chief or avoided comment.  

However, as more and more truths about the case came to light, they admitted to the bare minimum and tried to explain that, somehow, their words meant something different.
 
The official in question stated, “At the time, the president’s office reviewed whether the Marine Corps’ authority to investigate and name suspects was in accordance with the Military Court Act. There would have been orders from President Yoon on this.”
 
The argument is that since the Marine Corps investigators didn’t have investigative authority, the president merely felt obliged to make a criticism on principle, as commander-in-chief of the country, that the scope of suspects was overly broad, which means that it wasn’t an abuse of power.

Even if this is the most basic of criticisms, whether the president has the authority to intervene in internal military investigations is debatable.
 
According to the act delineating the services of military police, the minister of national defense and the chief of staff of the respective arm of the armed forces are the chief commanders and supervisors of the military police service, not the president. Moreover, Col. Park Jeong-hun, the head of the Marine Corps investigation team at the time, claims that after the president lost his temper, the list of suspects in the case of the Marine who died during a flood rescue mission was reduced to two people, not including division commander Lim Seong-geun. The order that the president gave cannot be said to have been a general one regarding principles. 
 
Even if it is only for the sake of determining which instructions were made by whom and when, there’s never been a greater need to question the president himself as well as the presidential office. 

Regarding Yoon’s three phone calls to Lee, the presidential official said that “nothing related to Cpl. Chae Was mentioned in those calls” — a statement anyone would find hard to believe. Lee, who had denied that any such calls even took place, said, “When I said that, I meant that I didn’t receive any calls to remove the division commander from investigations, not that there were no calls. I admit that my wording was inaccurate.” Who would believe that?
 
Yoon, who stands at the center of these allegations, responded to claims stating that he lost his temper during the meeting by giving a vague nonanswer and vetoing a bill for a special counsel probe that would inevitably make him subject to questioning. 
 
Despite the publication of evidence that he made these calls, the president remains silent. His silence is only stoking the anger of the public. The longer he stays silent, the greater the public’s ire will grow. 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]