[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court is set to deliver a ruling on a damages lawsuit filed by the family of the late Lieutenant Kim Hun, who died under mysterious circumstances in the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom in 1998, against the state. The family claims, "The state belatedly recognized his death as duty-related but still insists it was a suicide," and they lost in both the first and second trials.
On the 25th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Noh Jeonghee) will announce the verdict in the appeal trial of the damages claim filed by Lieutenant Kim's father and other family members against the state.
Lieutenant Kim was found dead from a gunshot wound on February 24, 1998, at a frontline guard post (GP) where he was on duty. At the time, military investigators concluded it was a pistol suicide. However, as the media and others raised the possibility of homicide and it became a social issue, the Ministry of National Defense formed a special investigation team to reinvestigate the case, but the military authorities' conclusion of suicide did not change.
Subsequently, in the damages lawsuit filed against the state, the family won a Supreme Court ruling in 2006 that held the military investigative agency responsible for generating suspicion due to inadequate initial investigation, ordering the state to pay mental damages.
However, it took even longer for Lieutenant Kim to be officially recognized as having died in the line of duty. In 2012, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission recommended the Ministry of National Defense recognize Lieutenant Kim's death as duty-related, but the Ministry only officially recognized it in August 2017, stating that "the manner of death is unclassified but occurred while performing duties as a platoon leader." This was five years after the commission's recommendation and 19 years after his death.
In response, the family filed a lawsuit in June last year seeking 500 million won in damages from the state for the delayed recognition of duty-related death but lost in both the first and second trials.
The key issue before the Supreme Court is whether the delay in recognizing Lieutenant Kim's death as duty-related constitutes grounds for state compensation liability under the State Compensation Act. The first trial ruled, "In the absence of direct or clear regulatory grounds to presume duty-related death at the time, the second and third investigations, which were upheld by the Supreme Court as lawful, do not objectively lack justification to the extent that the classification or maintenance of the cause of death can be deemed unlawful." The second trial also stated, "It is difficult to recognize that the administrative agency had malicious intent or motive to delay the recognition of duty-related death."
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