By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

Defense Minister Cho Young-kil expressed his readiness to step down on Tuesday, taking responsibility for the latest military scandal regarding a misleading report on the July 14 inter-Korean naval incident.

Chong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Jong-min said President Roh Moo-hyun will likely accept Cho’s resignation. ``There will be an announcement on the matter soon including news of Cho’s successor,’’ his said during a media briefing.

Another Chong Wa Dae official said officials in charge of personnel affairs began deliberating among several figures to replace Cho.

``President Roh will make up his mind within a few days,’’ he said, adding it could be today, at the earliest.

Cho said he no longer wanted to be a burden for the President, who is the supreme commander of the nation’s armed forces.

``I think I’ve played my role as defense minister now that the latest event has just came to an end,’’ Cho told reporters covering his ministry.

He apologized to the people for the scandalous event, in which the military made the president and the people uneasy.

Officials said Minister Cho might have made up his mind to resign during a Cabinet meeting presided over by Roh in the morning since he flatly denied earlier media reports about his possible resignation before attending the meeting.

According to sources, Roh first wanted to conclude the case by giving only relatively gentle warnings to several high- and mid-level officials without sacking Minister Cho, but seems to have changed his mind after his remarks on Saturday.

During a National Assembly session, he revealed that the South Korean navy had deliberately concealed radio messages from North Korea on July 14, fearing possible instruction from superiors not to fire warning shots.

Cho’s remarks overturned his ministry’s announcement just a day before, or last Friday, that the omission of the important information was a technical mistake caused by ``carelessness’’ and there was no intentional scheme to hide it.

Despite the fresh revelation, Chong Wa Dae tried to maintain its cool with the military. But it was pressed hard by the opposition Grand National Party and has adopted a much tougher stance demanding stern punishment for top military brass, including Cho.

On July 14, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the Navy fired two warning shots toward a North Korean ship as the boat intruded into southern waters ignoring its repeated calls through the radio hotline not to cross the sea border.

However, it was found a day later that the Navy had fired warning shots even after receiving messages from the North because it had believed the approaching ship was a Chinese fishing boat, not North Korean.

As disputes grew, the Navy defended its action saying it did nothing wrong in repelling the North Korean intruder as it fired warning shots in accordance with the rules of engagement.

However, the Navy found itself in further trouble after it was later revealed that it did not even report to higher command, the JCS, that there actually were radio exchanges between the two Koreas during the few critical minutes of the incident.

An investigation was launched over the case at the president’s instruction on July 16, and after a weeklong inquiry, five officers including the commander in chief of the Navy’s fleet operations were found responsible.

While revealing the outcome of its inquiry, the investigators said on July 23 that the event was caused by a combination of the Navy’s inflexible vigilance since the bloody naval clash between the two Koreas in 2002 and some high-level officers’ poor understanding of the recent developments in inter-Korean relations.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr