The anti-corruption investigation office was questioning the commander of the Marine Corps on Saturday as part of a probe into an alleged influence-peddling case related to the death of a young Marine last year, officials said.
Marine Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. Kim Kye-hwan appeared at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, Saturday morning, while remaining tight-lipped when reporters asked him questions.
Kim is suspected of being involved in the process of exerting undue influence on the military prosecution's handling of the inquiry involving a young Marine named Chae Su-geun, who died during a mission to search for civilian victims of heavy downpours last summer.
In October, Col. Park Jung-hun, the Marines' former top investigator, was indicted on charges of insubordination and defamation of his superior after he handed over the probe findings regarding Chae's death to the civilian police despite then Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup's orders to the Marine Corps' top commander to hold it off for more legal deliberations.
Park, who spearheaded the preliminary probe into the case, has claimed Kim ordered the case to be scaled down, citing influence from the presidential office.
The military investigation team initially planned to refer eight suspects to the police over the Marine's death but was found to have later reduced the number of suspects to two.
Park said Kim told him he was instructed to scale down the number of suspects after the then defense minister talked on the phone with "the VIP," which refers to a high-level official at the presidential office, on the matter.
Kim reportedly denied the allegations and testified he never mentioned "the VIP" during his conversation with Park in a military prosecution probe last year, accusing Park of cooking up a story.
After questioning Kim, the CIO is expected to summon former Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and former Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul on similar charges. (Yonhap)
