By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

South Korea’s top inspection body said Tuesday that it would launch a special inquiry into a growing dispute over an alleged pistol threat between two state organizations investigating suspicious deaths in the armed forces.

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said it would embark on a 10-day inspection from Wednesday to look into the claim from a presidential panel that its staffers had been threatened with a pistol by a military official while studying the mysterious death of an Army soldier, Pfc. Heo Won-geun, 20 years ago.

``There has been a growing need for a special investigation since the discord between the two different state agencies has been escalating,’’ Nam Il-ho, a state auditor who will lead the seven-member team, said in a press briefing.

However, Nam added they will not re-examine the mysterious death of Pfc. Heo itself, but will instead focus on the discord between the two organizations and will clarify whether there were instances of blackmail or any interference in official duties as claimed.

Two different bodies, the Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths and a special investigation team of the Defense Ministry, have been studying the Heo case to determine whether he really killed himself or was murdered.

On Tuesday, the presidential panel made an allegation that MSgt. Won Gil-yeon, then a member of the ministry’s investigation team, fired a pistol near one of its two officials in March. Won warned that he would kill them unless they returned documents on the case taken from his home while in his absence, putting handcuffs on the two officials, according to the presidential panel.

Won was quick to dispute the claim, saying he only fired a ``gas’’ gun into the air. He also accused the two officials of seizing his documents after beating his wife while he was absent.

One of the most representative cases of suspicious deaths, Pfc. Heo was found dead in 1984 at his military base in the mountainous Kangwon Province. The military authorities had earlier concluded Heo committed suicide, as he could not endure the malicious and cruel treatment from his company commander.

In 2002, the presidential panel overturned the military’s verdict, saying Heo was shot dead by his drunken senior officer. The panel accused Army officials of having covered up the case.

The Defense Ministry then formed a special investigative unit, which later reconfirmed that Heo had committed suicide. The ministry’s conflicting conclusion led the presidential panel to reopen the case earlier this year.

But the two different state bodies seem to have disagreed more often than not as the scandalous row has recently surfaced as a claim at the presidential panel. The commission officials earlier alleged that a four-star general leading the military investigation team verbally threatened to kill them ``unless they do their job well.’’ The general flatly denied the allegation.

The presidential commission was launched under the previous administration of Kim Dae-jung to shed light on many suspicious cases that took place under past authoritarian regimes.

South Korea keeps 690,000 soldiers, mostly men in their early 20s, under a mandatory conscription system. All eligible men must serve in the military or government agencies for 24 to 28 months.

The South Korean military has been accused of keeping secret from the public many crimes and deaths that took place in military barracks.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr