It has been more than 10 years since a North Korean submarine launched a torpedo at the South Korean warship Cheonan, killing 46 sailors on board. Despite this fact, some people in South Korea just not do not believe that North Korea was behind the 2010 attack, even though South Korean officials and an international team concluded that Pyongyang sunk the ship.
Conspiracy theorist Shin Sang-chul filed complaints with the newly-established Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (COI) on June 11 to investigate South Korean Minister of National Defense Suh Wook and 10 lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) for saying “North Korea is responsible for the attack.”
“Minister Suh Wook recently said at the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee that North Korea is responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan, and his crime is grave since he distorted the facts of the incident,” Shin said. “Lawmakers from the DP at the committee were responsible for finding out the fact about manipulations and lies but did not do anything, which is a violation and dereliction of their duty.”
He argued that Defense Minister Suh and lawmakers violated Article 122 of the Criminal Act. The article states that “a public official who, by abusing his/her official authority, causes a person to perform the conduct which is not to be performed by the person, or obstructs the person from exercising a right which the person is entitled to exercise, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years and suspension of qualifications for not more than ten years, or fine not exceeding ten million won [$9,000].”
Shin ran an online media outlet called Surprise and was a member of the joint civilian-military investigation team of the Cheonan sinking in 2010. He was added to the team at the recommendation of the DP at the time. Shin argued that the conclusion was manipulated and that the government was hiding the actual cause.
He argued that the warship sank after it collided with rocks or other underwater objects. He included his argument in the complaint he filed with the COI. “The petitioner analyzed the sinking of Cheonan for the past 11 years by analyzing materials and evidence he acquired, and came to the conclusion that the Ministry of Defense’s official announcement that the Cheonan sank due to a North Korean torpedo attack was false,” the complaint said.
Previously, senior officials from the Defense Ministry as well as the chief investigator filed lawsuits against him. Shin was found guilty in February 2016 and was sentenced to eight months in prison and two years of probation.
Recently, the Presidential Truth Commission on Deaths in the Military decided it would restart the investigation into the sinking of the warship Cheonan. The Commission decided to reopen the investigation after Shin filed a petition to reinvestigate it.
The Presidential Commission’s decision to reinvestigate this issue was made in December, but it was reversed in April after strong backlash from the families of the sailors. It was also found out that Shin did not meet the requirements to be a petition. To become a petitioner, one has to have personally observed the incident or personally heard the truth from someone who observed the incident. This was not the case for Shin.
In April, Defense Minister Suh said he feels sorry about the whole situation related to Cheonan. He confirmed that North Korea was behind the attack and said “he [Shin] who is denying the joint civilian-military investigation is not an understandable person for us.”
On June 7, Cho Sang-ho, former deputy spokesperson of the ruling DP, argued that Choi Won-il, the Cheonan’s captain at the time of the sinking, “was the one who buried his soldiers at sea.”
He later apologized for his comments. As his comment drew the ire of survivors and their families, Rep. Kim Byung-joon of the DP, a retired four-star general, drew the line with Cho. “The Moon Jae-in administration and the Democratic Party has a clear stance about the sinking of Cheonan,” he said. “As it is clearly stated in the joint investigation team’s report, Cheonan sank after a torpedo manufactured by North Korea caused the ship to split in half. I would like to reemphasize that the DP’s stance on Cheonan incident has always been that it was sunk by North Korea.”
President Moon’s stance has been that “the government has a stance that North Korea is responsible for it.” Cheonan survivors called on President Moon to avoid using this vague term and clearly express his opinion.
The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) held a seminar along with survivors and families of the Cheonan sinking on June 11 as the controversy continued to grow. “I asked President Moon about who is behind the sinking of Cheonan but have not heard back from him yet,” said Kim Ki-hyun, floor leader of the PPP. “We have to question seriously whether he is the president of the Republic of Korea if he has difficulty answering this question.”
Choi Won-il, the Cheonan’s captain, said he hopes that the incident is never politicized from now on. “I will do my best to recover the glory of [fallen sailors] by stopping conspiracy theories from being allowed in this country,” said Choi.
