Ex-Marine investigator takes office as acting head of defense investigative unit

A former Marine Corps chief investigator who was acquitted of insubordination charges in a probe into the death of a conscript has been sworn in as an acting head of a defense investigative unit, military officials said Friday. Brig. Gen. Park Jung-hun was inaugurated the previous day as the acting director of the Criminal Investigation Command (CIC), after he was promoted to the rank of one-star general in a military reshuffle last Friday, according to officials. The CIC is the highest investigative unit under the defense ministry in charge of overseeing criminal investigations within the military. As the chief of the CIC is usually allocated to a major general-level officer, Park began his work as the acting chief. Park was embroiled in a military probe into a young conscript killed during flood-related rescue operations in 2023, in which he was indicted for allegedly rejecting his superiors' orders not to deliver the internal probe results to the civilian police.