Military Prosecutors: “We’ll Go So Far As To Take Legal Action Against the Defense Ministry”

Three military prosecutors working for the Defense Ministry who were dismissed on December 20 made it clear that they would take legal action, including a libel suit, against the ministry, saying, “We cannot accept our dismissal without good reason and appropriate procedure.” Against this backdrop, the confrontation between the military prosecution and the military authorities regarding the recent army promotion scandal is expected to become a legal battle between the two.

A military prosecutor dismissed by the Defense Ministry said in a phone interview with a Dong-a Ilbo reporter: “Now that the ministry has seriously slandered concerned military prosecutors by uttering words like ‘disobedience’ and leading the public to join in its accusation, we will deliver it to justice using legal procedures.”

He stressed, “First, we will do everything we can in legal terms, including filing a libel suit against the Defense Minister and filing a petition regarding the unfairness of our dismissal.”

The prosecutor asserted, “The Dismissal Probe Committee, on December 20, concluded that the Defense Ministry’s argument that military prosecutors leaked investigation information is plausible, but cannot be proved. Yet, the committee dismissed us based on this, a decision that should be completely annulled.”

He went on to say, “We attended the committee and proactively publicized our intention to cooperate with the investigation continuously if unfair probe conditions improve,” stressing that their application for dismissal was due to Army leaders’ interference in the probe, not due to Defense Minister Yoon Kwan-ung’s refusal on the authorization of an arrest warrant issuance.

In other words, they claimed the committee’s decision to dismiss them for disrupting military chain of command and order after taking collective action and leaking investigation details was unacceptable, as it did not take their specific conditions into account.

Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com