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South Korean Colonel Who Accused President of Whitewash Is Acquitted

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The case, involving an inquiry into a marine’s death, had stoked political tensions long before President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment last month.

A South Korean marine colonel who faced insubordination and defamation charges after accusing President Yoon Suk Yeol of whitewashing his investigation into a marine’s death was acquitted by a court-martial on Thursday.

A public uproar over the case of the colonel, Park Jung-hun, rocked South Korea for months last year, prompting opposition lawmakers to put forward a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate his allegations. The political confrontation intensified ​as Mr. Yoon vetoed the bill three times and the opposition threatened to impeach him.

Mr. Yoon eventually was impeached by the opposition-dominated National Assembly, but for another reason: his six-hour imposition of martial law last month, during which he was accused of sending troops into the Assembly, which he said had tried to paralyze his government​. He was also accused of ordering the arrests of his political enemies.

Months before that, the opposition had cited the prosecution of Colonel Park as a​n example of how Mr. Yoon’s government abused its ​authority to silence ​dissenting voices.

In its ruling on Thursday, a three-judge panel at the Central District Military Court in Seoul cleared ​Colonel Park of insubordination and defaming senior military officers. He had denied the charges, saying they were filed in retaliation for ​his efforts to hold senior officers in the South Korean Marine Corps accountable for the death of ​Lance Cpl. Chae Su-geun in July 2023.

Lance Corporal Chae and other marines had been sent to search for missing residents in central South Korea after the town was hit by floods, but they were given no life jackets ​and ordered to wear knee-high rubber boots that impeded their movement as they waded through the fast-moving, waist-deep floodwaters. Lance Corporal Chae was swept away and later found dead.

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