Police not to charge Army general for infidelity

By Lee Hyo-sik

Police said Monday that an Army general caught in the act of adultery by the husband of the woman will be cleared of charges even after the woman committed suicide by drowning herself in a river.

On the night of Nov. 29, a brigadier general at an Army intelligence unit, identified only by his surname Lee, 53, was with a 42-year-old woman also surnamed Lee in her vehicle.

The woman was an insurance saleswoman and the general was her client, according to police.

The 42-year-old woman called her husband at around 11 p.m. that day, saying she had hired a substitute driver because she was drunk and was on her way home.

As it neared midnight and the wife was still not home, the husband began searching the neighborhood in southern Seoul. In an alley outside their apartment he spotted the wife’s car and when he opened the door, he found the general inside with his wife only partially clothed.

The husband told her to go home and then took the general out of the vehicle and assaulted him for 15 minutes. Lee has been treated at a hospital for fractured ribs.

According to the police, the wife did not return home and instead went to the Han River. Witnesses said she sat on the embankment for about 30 minutes before jumping.

They called emergency services and the wife was rescued. She was transferred to a hospital but pronounced dead the following day.

The husband at first thought that Lee was sexually assaulting his wife. But he has not filed a formal charge against the general, a police officer said, adding there was only circumstantial evidence that the general was engaged in any criminal activity.