Colleagues of deceased Coast Guard officer claim superiors attempted cover-up

Four colleagues of a Coast Guard officer killed on duty while rescuing a Chinese man hold a press conference at a funeral home in Incheon, Monday. Yonhap

Four colleagues of a Coast Guard officer who drowned on duty while rescuing a Chinese man claimed Monday they were kept by their superiors from speaking the truth about the incident.

The officers made the claim in a press conference at the funeral home of assistant inspector Lee Jae-suk, a 34-year-old Coast Guard officer who died last week after pulling a 70-something-year-old Chinese man out of a mudflat in Incheon during high tide.

The four said they were jointly standing duty with Lee at their Coast Guard substation in Yeongheung, Incheon, when Lee responded to an emergency call in the early hours of Thursday, while they were on a break.

They claimed their team leader did not wake them up and that they learned of Lee's situation only after returning to duty at 3 a.m.

"We have been getting orders from the head of the Yeongheung substation to keep silent on the case as assistant inspector Lee must be made into a hero," one of the officers said.

"The substation chief told staff to shed tears, not say a word and stay silent when we met the bereaved family," the officer said.

According to the officers, the first time the substation chief silenced them was as Lee was being transferred to a hospital after being found.

"The substation chief took us behind the container being used as the Yeongheung substation, along with other people who had been called for the search, and told us these were orders from the head of the Incheon Coast Guard," one officer said.

The Coast Guard denied there was any cover-up, saying they have provided all available resources to the bereaved family, including surveillance camera footage, drone footage and handheld radio transcripts.

The Coast Guard also said the Incheon Coast Guard chief has denied the allegations.

Under Coast Guard regulations, at least two people are required to drive in patrol cars, but that rule was found to have been broken ahead of last week's incident.