Navy officers face courts-martial over ship sinking

By Jung Sung-ki

Staff reporter

Some senior Navy officers are facing courts-martial, while others will be subject to disciplinary action this week for their alleged mishandling of the deadly sinking of the frigate Cheonan in March, an official at the Ministry of National Defense said Sunday.

The ship sinking claimed the lives of 46 sailors. A Seoul-led multinational investigation team concluded in May that the ship had been torpedoed by a North Korean submarine.

In June, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) recommended the defense ministry penalize 25 military officers and defense officials, including Gen. Lee Sang-eui, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for allegedly neglecting their duty when and after the 1,200-ton frigate was sunk in the West Sea on March 26. Of them, 12 should face courts-martial, the audit agency recommended.

The BAI said related military officers and officials failed to properly report the incident to the upper chain of command, apparently to avoid criticism over “loopholes” in the defense against a North Korean attack.

Since then, the defense ministry has conducted its own review of the BAI list to single out those responsible, as it didn’t want to fully accept the results of the BAI probe.

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young expressed his uneasiness about the BAI probe.

“We’ll humbly accept the BAI inspection results and will take appropriate measures, but I feel terrible that people think the military will habitually lie or distort and exaggerate a situation,” Kim told a National Assembly session on June 15.

Another senior official was blunter. ``That was a naval disaster,” the official told The Korea Times. “But the BAI said 15 officers at the Joint Chiefs of Staff should take responsibility, while holding only a couple of Navy officers accountable. That’s not fair, and that’s why we couldn’t trust the audit. BAI officials can’t and don’t understand military operations very well.”