Officers of the Korea Coast Guard pay respects to Sgt. Lee Jae-seok, who died on a rescue mission, at his funeral on Sept. 11 in Incheon. (Yonhap)
Officers of the Korea Coast Guard pay respects to Sgt. Lee Jae-seok, who died on a rescue mission, at his funeral on Sept. 11 in Incheon. (Yonhap)

A total of 575 officials of the Korea Coast Guard have been subjected to disciplinary actions in the past five years for a wide range of offenses such as gambling, drunk driving and neglect of duty, government data showed Tuesday.

The report by Rep. Moon Geum-ju of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, based on Coast Guard data, compiled the disciplinary actions handed down between 2020 and August of this year. Of those, 20 were removed from office, 43 were dismissed, 48 were demoted and 141 were suspended.

Dismissal refers to a public official being fired and banned from government positions for three years, while removal also means being fired, but with a reduced severance package and a five-year ban instead of three.

The other cases were 177 official reprimands and 146 salary reductions.

The types of wrongdoing included 77 cases of neglect of duty, 63 cases of drunk driving, 44 cases of sexual misconduct, and another 46 cases in which officials abused their authority to engage in unlawful acts.

The Korea Coast Guard has recently been subject to criticism for the death of 34-year-old Sgt. Lee Jae-seok, who died on a rescue mission to which he was dispatched alone, despite six officers being on duty at the time. The government is investigating the circumstances of his death and why he was sent by himself.


minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com