Brigadier General to be Re-summoned

Investigating into alleged fraud in recent Army promotions, the military prosecution on Monday re-summoned a brigadier general in charge of personnel affairs and continued to probe into an allegation claiming manipulation in promotion documents on Army officers promoted to brigadier general last month.

An official from the military prosecution said, “We have yet to seize any evidence to take legal action against military officials who had been summoned. For now, we don’t have any plan to subpoena military officers promoted to brigadier general and senior Army officers (higher than major general level from Army headquarters).”

Since military prosecutors have found the difference between the original copy of documents related to Army personnel affairs and evaluation materials used for examination on promotion, they asked Army headquarters to summon two private soldiers involved in computerizing documentation on promotion. However, the Army headquarters rejected the demand, saying, “It is unacceptable to summon private soldiers who have no responsibility for that based on command structures.”

Meanwhile, looking for military officials who wrote anonymous petitions, the Defense Ministry’s joint investigation team will make investigation into telephone records of field grade officers suspected of preparing those petitions since a colonel, who expects to get promoted to brigadier general next year, filed a lawsuit against petition writers for libeling him.

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com