The National Human Rights Commission announced it would begin investigating suspicious military deaths from 26 Feb 2003. Currently, 33 cases of “accidental deaths” have been registered for investigation with the NHRC, and a task force was formed in January to uncover the facts behind the cases.
The catalyst for the Commission to begin investigation into these cases was an incident that occurred an unnamed military base of the 5th Army Corps in Pocheon, Kyounggi Province at 5pm on 27 Nov 2001. Kang, 21, a staff sergeant, was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head, but the military police announced that the deceased, depressed for personal reasons and overlooked for promotion, had committed suicide using a K-2 gun.
The bereaved family asked the NHRC to conduct a full-scale investigation into Kang’s death in July 2002, stating that there were suspicious circumstances around his death including 1) the deceased had no reason to commit suicide 2) at the time of the autopsy, there were powder burns on the deceased’s hands, which led to the conclusion that he was grasping the muzzle at the time of death and 3) there was blood splattered in both the front and back of the deceased.
The National Human Rights Commission, along with the bereaved family, forensic doctors, scientists, etc. announced it will investigate the validity of the military police findings, by forensically and scientifically investigating 1) the posture of the body when the gun was shot 2) undiscovered bullets 3) the splattering of the blood, and 4) the state of the dead body.
