Phone Call After Three Conversations with Then Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop
On August 2 of last year, the day the Marine Corps Investigation Unit transferred the records of Corporal Chae's line-of-duty death case to the police, President Yoon Suk-yeol reportedly made three phone calls to former Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-seop and also called Im Ki-hoon, then National Security Office Defense Secretary, and Shin Beom-cheol, former Deputy Minister of National Defense.
According to call records submitted to the military court on the 19th, President Yoon called former Secretary Im on his personal mobile phone on August 2 last year, speaking from 13:25 to 13:29 for 4 minutes and 51 seconds. On the same day at 16:21, President Yoon called former Deputy Minister Shin on his personal mobile phone and spoke for 10 seconds.
Earlier, it was identified that President Yoon also called former Minister Lee Jong-seop three times between 12:00 and 13:00 on that day using his personal mobile phone, with a total call duration of about 18 minutes. The call between President Yoon and former Secretary Im took place approximately 27 minutes after the third call with former Minister Lee.
As the fact of calls between former President Yoon and former Minister Lee was revealed, raising suspicions about whether it was related to the process of retrieving the transferred case records, additional call records confirming President Yoon’s communications with former Secretary Im and former Deputy Minister Shin have been verified.
On the same day, Yoo Jae-eun, Legal Affairs Officer at the Ministry of National Defense, was also confirmed to have exchanged four text messages and calls with Lee Si-won, then Public Service Discipline Secretary at the Presidential Office. According to the call records, Yoo sent two text messages at 13:42 and 16:45 on August 2 last year. After the second message, former Secretary Im replied to Yoo by text, and Yoo then called Im, speaking for 2 minutes and 46 seconds around 16:46.
August 2 last year was the day the Marine Corps Investigation Unit transferred eight senior officers, including Im Seong-geun, then commander of the Marine Corps 1st Division, to the Gyeongbuk Police Agency on charges of professional negligence resulting in death around 10:30 a.m. Subsequently, the Ministry of National Defense prosecution team decided to retrieve the case from the police after indicting former commander Park on charges of insubordination, and the case was retrieved from the Gyeongbuk Police Agency around 19:20 that day.
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