hankyoreh

President Yoon Suk-yeol heads to a meeting room after appointing Oh Dong-woon as the new chief prosecutor of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials on May 22. 2024. (Yonhap)

A figure who attended the meeting at which President Yoon Suk-yeol was briefed on the results of an investigation into the death of a Marine during a flood rescue effort last year told a member of the ruling party that “the president lost his temper,” the Hankyoreh has learned. The meeting attendee reported the experience sometime before the press printed rumors about Yoon being angered by the investigation results. The attendee’s remarks are thought to be a “smoking gun” substantiating the veracity of those rumors. 

“Last August, I heard from a figure who attended a national security meeting at the presidential office on the morning of July 31 that the president lost his temper after being briefed about the Cpl. Chae case,” a figure from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) recently told the Hankyoreh. Until now, the rumors about Yoon’s angry response to the briefing had only been backed up by hearsay about what Marine Corps Commandant Kim Kye-hwan had supposedly heard from someone else. 

The allegations about Yoon’s angry response to the investigation briefing go something like this. After being briefed that charges of professional negligence resulting in death against senior Marines including Lim Seong-geun, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, would be handed over to the police, Yoon reportedly flew into a rage and said, “If a division commander is prosecuted for something like this, who would want to be a division commander in the Republic of Korea?” Subsequently, the presidential office and then Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup allegedly engaged in a series of illegal actions that included orders to defer the case transfer, retrieve records and redo the investigation.  

Considering that Yoon’s angry response is thought to be the starting point of alleged government interference in the investigation into the Marine’s death, Yoon would have been a key suspect in the special counsel probe that Yoon himself vetoed on Tuesday. 

The day the PPP figure heard about Yoon’s angry response from a meeting attendee was before rumors about that were made public. The rumors were brought to public attention when a summary of progress on the investigation by Col. Park Jeong-hun, former head of the Marine investigation team, was disclosed on “Straight,” a current events program on MBC, on Aug. 27 of last year. 

The document that was prepared for the investigation by Park, who was later charged with insubordination, included the following account: “According to what I heard from [Marine Corps] Commandant [Kim Kye-hwan], a defense aide [secretary] from the National Security Office said during a meeting at the presidential office that was presided over by the president on the morning of July 31 that the investigation into a drowning incident in the 1st Marine Division had resulted in charges of professional negligence leading to death against eight individuals, including a division commander, and that the case would be transferred to the police. After being briefed about that, the president lost his temper and immediately got on the phone with the defense minister.” 

National Security Office meetings are typically attended by a small number of people including the national security director and the office’s first and second deputy directors. Depending on the agenda, other officials from the presidential office, including those at the secretary level, may attend as well. 

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is probing alleged government interference into the investigation of Cpl. Chae’s death, regards Park’s claim about what he heard from Kim Kye-hwan about the president’s angry response as credible. Drawing upon forensic data from Kim’s phone and testimony from his acquaintances, the CIO has acquired evidence showing that Kim told not only Park but also other people that the case transfer had been deferred because of the president’s anger. 

The emergence of more evidence about the president’s angry response means that everyone who attended the meeting at the presidential office on July 31 will need to be questioned in order to get to the bottom of the allegations. In order to determine whether Yoon can be charged with abusing his authority and preventing the exercise of lawful rights, it is first necessary to confirm the details of what he said and the context of his instructions. 

By Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter; Jeon Gwang-joon, staff reporter 

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