By Remember the arrest of a number of ROK Army officers for golfing during the duty day? Well this scandal has turned out to be much larger than originally thought:
The military said Friday it plans to punish six of its top medical officials in connection with a scandal in which officer-level medics played golf during duty hours.
Fifty medics have been court-martialed, with 35 of them put on probation and three on suspended terms since the scandal erupted last month, according to the Ministry of National Defense. An officer can face a prison term of up to a year if convicted in the case. [Yonhap]
I’m still wondering whether these officers were golfing on a USFK golf course or not?
1:28 am on May 22nd, 2009 1
I have a lot of questions on this.
Does the ROK military have a non-judicial punishment system?
What is a "officer-level medic?" Would that be like a licensed medical professional in civilian life; doctors, anaesthetists, psychiatrist?
What are the consequences of a Court Martial conviction in Korean society? Would they lose their professional licenses or would they still be allowed to have a lucrative career from their medical qualifications earned in the military? Generally, Korean civilian society is very forgiving of these types of 'crimes.'
You probably already know where I would stand on this. I don't believe playing golf on duty is all that big a deal. But, if you are going to raise it to the leave of a Court Martial then the violation should have real punishment; like pandering to prostitution.
However, if they are charged with patient neglect by clearing their schedules of patient appointments, or falsifying records to say they were performing duties while they were playing golf, then I can see the crime.
Last question. I know the U.S. military is always short of medical professionals and I suspect the ROK military is too. Can they afford to dismiss many of them over something like this?
1:31 am on May 22nd, 2009 2
Correction: "leave of a Court Martial" = "level of a Court Martial"
1:38 am on May 22nd, 2009 3
You can wonder about whatever you want. No, they were golfing on ROK Army golf courses, of which there are many.
1:44 am on May 22nd, 2009 4
Senior medical officers were leaving their places of duty to golf, leaving junior-ranking, less-experienced officers on duty for prolonged periods of time. The performance of the junior guys was being scrutinized, and someone realized that all of the higher-ranking guys hadn't been around. The ROKA CID ran down the guest registers at a few ROKA-owned golf courses and they found out who'd been where, doing what.
If you'd read more news and less of each others' blogs then you'd know all about it.
2:50 am on May 22nd, 2009 5
Well LG please enlighten us with a link to the full story. Thanks.
7:12 am on May 22nd, 2009 6
You're going to have to wait a while for his answer…………he's off reading other blogs.
9:10 am on May 22nd, 2009 7
10:56 am on May 23rd, 2009 8
FYI, ROKA "CID" functions are carried out by ROKA DSC (Defense Security Command), or in Korean, Guk-gun Gi-mu-sa Ryong-bu (www.dsc.or.kr). And as you probably guessed, “officer-level medic” is just Konglish for 'medical officer'. As far as "non-judicial punishment system" in the ROKA, they don't have Article 15's per se. There are, however, two systems of punishment: One for career officers/NCO's, and one for enlisted draftees. ROK officers can get written reprimands for minor infractions, which are usually displayed above their desks/workspaces for a certain amount of time (usually 1~2 months), and then come down. (Real career enders though for ROK officers are DUI's and things of that nature.)
ROK conscripts, on the other hand — who usually get punished for insubordination and disobedience — are disciplined by being sent to a counseling unit for a few weeks. (In reality though, it's more like a "time out", where they while their time away playing computer games and watch TV until they're shamed enough (or bored enough) into returning to their units or are chaptered out.)
3:09 am on May 24th, 2009 9
I agree with chasing the officers off the golf course during business hours….the local business executives cant play golf if all these Americans are in the way. I’m just glad the Korean workers at the golf course let the authorities know about this situation
6:42 am on June 1st, 2009 10
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