Prosecutors said on the 18th that they searched and seized the Incheon Coast Guard station and the Yeongheung police substation in connection with the death of the late Coast Guard Sergeant Lee Jae-seok, who died on the 11th while rescuing an elderly person stranded in a tidal flat.
That day, the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office said in a base notice, "The day before, we formed an investigative team for Sergeant Lee's line-of-duty death and launched an investigation." Jang Jae-wan, director of the anti-corruption planning office at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, will lead the team. The Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office said it "considered the importance of the matter and staffing conditions at frontline offices."
The investigative team will include one research prosecutor from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and three prosecutors dedicated to anti-corruption at the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office.
Sergeant Lee died on the 11th while single-handedly rescuing a Chinese man in his 70s who was stranded in a tidal flat on Yeongheung Island, Ongjin County, Incheon. At the time, the Yeongheung police substation had Sergeant Lee, the on-duty Head of Team, and four colleagues on duty. However, the on-duty Head of Team reportedly determined there was no major safety concern and dispatched Sergeant Lee alone.
On the 15th, four of Sergeant Lee's colleagues held a press conference and said, "The Yeongheung substation chief and the Incheon Coast Guard chief ordered silence about this incident." That day, Korea Coast Guard Commissioner Kim Yong-jin expressed his intention to resign, taking moral responsibility. President Lee Jae-myung ordered a fact-finding probe into the case.