Supreme Court: "JSA Suspicious Death Lt. Kim Hun Not a Delayed Recognition of Duty Death" (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] The bereaved family of the late Lieutenant Kim Hun, who died under suspicious circumstances in the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom in 1998, has ultimately lost a damages lawsuit filed against the state.

On the 25th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Noh Jeonghee) upheld the lower court's ruling that dismissed 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, while on duty at a GP (frontline guard post). At the time, military investigators concluded it was a pistol suicide. However, as the media 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.

As a result, it took a long time to recognize Lieutenant Kim's death as a service-related death. In 2012, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission recommended the Ministry of National Defense to acknowledge his death as service-related, but the Ministry only officially recognized it in August 2017, stating that "as a platoon leader, the death is recognized as 'death of unknown cause' during duty." This was five years after the commission's recommendation and 19 years after his death.

Accordingly, the bereaved family filed a lawsuit in June last year seeking 500 million won in damages from the state, citing the delay in recognizing the service-related death.

The family lost in both the first and second trials. The delay in recognizing the service-related death for five years after the commission's corrective recommendation was seen as resulting from unclear legal grounds and the commission's request for suspension.

The Supreme Court's ruling on this day was the same. The court stated, "From the perspective of the public officials belonging to the defendant who reviewed the classification of the deceased's death, there was no direct legal provision to recognize it as a service-related death in cases where the truth could not be determined, making it difficult to decide the deceased's death as service-related."