Go to contents

All 50 Eligible Officers on List Became Generals

Posted December. 07, 2004 23:02,   

한국어

It was revealed yesterday that an officer in charge of personnel affairs had an exact list of 50 officers who were promoted to brigadier generals before the promotion consideration procedure began.

The military prosecution announced on Monday that a lieutenant colonel who dealt with personnel affairs made a list of 50 so-called eligible competitors in the promotion, which included 48 officers who were actually promoted, on October 3. However, it announced again yesterday that the lieutenant colonel changed the names of two people on the list in the morning of October 5 to match all the officers who were actually promoted.

This raises the suspicion that promoted officers were already decided before the promotion consideration, and that the official promotion consideration bodies only confirmed the promotions.

The Army explained that the list of eligible competitors was made personally by the lieutenant colonel only for predicting who would be promoted. However, the military prosecution said it is impossible to predict exactly the 50 officers out of 1,151 candidates.

The prosecution also confirmed that the lieutenant colonel drew circles around the names of most the 50 promoted officers on a list of 100-odd eligible competitors which he made in July, three months before the promotion consideration.

“I used the list on my own, and did not submit the list to the official bodies to exert influence on the consideration process,” refuted the lieutenant colonel. “It would hurt my pride more, as a person responsible for personnel affairs, if my personal prediction was largely different from the actual result.”



Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com