Foul play involved in deaths of two men serving mandatory military service, committee finds
After a reinvestigation, the Presidential Commission on Suspicious Deaths in the Military said on December 12 that a 20-year-old staff sergeant was beaten to death in 1982 by his senior. Another 21-year-old private was found by the committee to have committed suicide in 1996 because of harassment from seniors.
Accordingly, the committee said it will ask the Defense Minister to reassess the cause of death of the staff sergeant. For the private, who served in a correctional facility during his mandatory military service, the committee said it will ask the Justice Minister to recognize the private's death as a 'death during official work.'
In case of the death of the staff sergeant, who is only identified as his family name Kim, the military authorities had said that he died from suffocation while sleeping. However, Kim was found to have died after his senior struck him in the chest about four times. The committee secured evidence that Kim's colleague was ordered by superiors to keep mum on the cause of Kim's death.
For the private, who is only identified as his family name Park, the military authorities have said he committed suicide due to depression. However, the committee found that he jumped to death on October 22, 1996, because of physical abuse, sexual harassment, and felony-level assaults.
Meanwhile, the committee decided to resume investigation into the death of First Lieutenant Kim Hoon, who died in 1998 at the Joint Security Area (JSA) between the two Koreas in Panmunjeom. Kim Ho-cheol, an executive member of the committee, said, "We decided to resume the investigation because many suspicions remain over Kim's death following the military's investigation. The military concluded that Kim shot himself without conducting a chemical test on his pistol." Kim died of a bullet wound in a bunker; speculations over his death have persisted over the past eight years. Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
