Two S. Korean officials in trouble
for playing golf during military alert
By Jim Lea, Stars and Stripes
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung will decide this week whether to
fire two top officials for playing golf during recent maritime incursions by North Korean
cargo ships, news reports Sunday said.
The president will call in Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin and Joint
Chiefs of Staff Chairman Cho Yung-kil this week to hear their explanations, TV reports
said.
The presidential spokesman’s office and the Defense Ministry
declined to comment on the reports. A public furor arose last week after the media
reported both officials continued to play golf June 2 after being told North Korean cargo
ships illegally transited the Cheju Strait off the peninsula’s southwest coast.
Even though the military was put on high alert, neither official
showed up at the national command center until after their golf games, media reported.
South Korea considers the strait its territorial waters, but allows
most foreign ships to transit it. North Korean ships are prohibited, since the two Koreas
technically still are at war.
Public opinion polls are denouncing the officials’ action, and
the Grand National Party, the nation’s major opposition political party, on Saturday
introduced a bill in the National Assembly demanding Defense Minister Kim and Cho be
sacked.
President Kim said the military handled the incursions properly, but
television commentators on Sunday said he almost certainly would take some disciplinary
action in view of the media, political and public furor.
Defense Minister Kim was in the United States for his first meeting
with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when the controversy rose last week. He returned to
Seoul on Sunday.
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