Yoo Yongwon: "Three Junior Military Officers Die in Just Over Two Weeks... Urgent Action Needed"

Psychiatric Treatment for NCOs and Company-Grade Officers Up 30% in Four Years
"Emergency Meetings by Unit and Accident Prevention Task Force Needed"

On September 8, Yoo Yongwon, a member of the People Power Party, addressed the recent suicides of three junior military officers, stating, "Minister of National Defense Ahn Kyubaek, newly appointed Army Chief of Staff Kim Kyuha, and other top military leaders must not take this issue lightly." He added, "What is needed now is not a show of superficial measures, but practical and immediate actions to resolve the fundamental problems faced by junior officers."

Through a post on his social networking service (SNS) account on the same day, Yoo said, "Just three days after Minister Ahn instructed major commanders to devote themselves to establishing suicide prevention measures and accident prevention at a key commanders' meeting, a fatal incident occurred. The fact that three junior officers with less than ten years of service have died in succession in just over two weeks is a grave matter that cannot be overlooked," he stated.

According to the military, on August 23, a sergeant at a frontline guard post in the Army died by suicide, and on September 2, a captain at the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon also took his own life with a rifle. Additionally, on the morning of September 8, a master sergeant serving at an Army communications unit in Gyeonggi Province was found dead in a single-person dormitory. A suicide note was reportedly found beside the deceased.

Regarding these successive incidents, Yoo commented, "Nothing will change with just orders and slogans," and emphasized, "The military must make decisive efforts to directly diagnose and address the crisis it faces, such as by holding emergency meetings for junior officers by unit and forming an accident prevention task force."

In fact, according to data submitted to Yoo by the Ministry of National Defense, 4,985 non-commissioned officers and company-grade officers received psychiatric treatment at military medical institutions during the first half of 2021, but this number increased by 30.33% to 6,497 during the same period last year. Additionally, the number of officers requesting voluntary discharge and leave of absence each increased by 2.1 times.

Yoo stressed, "This is not just a change in numbers; it is a clear warning sign of how severe the psychological burden on junior officers in the military has become. If the military authorities regard this warning merely as statistics, an even greater tragedy will be inevitable. The moment this is ignored, the 'predicted tragedy' caused by the complacency of the military leadership may be repeated, and this must not be forgotten."