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The armed forces were discovered to have breached a Ministry of National Defense regulation stating that “public donations should be utilized for soldiers whenever feasible,” by directing parts of the contributions toward incentive funds or international travel costs for officers.

As per the audit report titled “Special Inspection of Public Service Discipline in the Defense Sector,” published on the 8th by the Board of Audit and Inspection, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps received 58.8 billion South Korean won in donations between 2020 and 2024, with 54.6 billion South Korean won spent from this amount. However, 30.9 billion South Korean won (56.7%) of the total spending could not be confirmed regarding its usage. In instances where donations were used to buy and distribute items, records only verified the purchases, not the distribution of the items. Only receipts for goods worth 30.9 billion South Korean won were available.

Only 4.4 billion South Korean won (8.1%) was utilized for conscripted personnel. 12.6 billion South Korean won (23.1%) was partially assigned to conscripts, whereas 6.6 billion South Korean won (12.1%) was fully allocated to professional soldiers.

Even if donations were intended for conscripts, career soldiers typically received the largest share. At a military hospital, 165 sets of Hallabong citrus fruits, bought with 8.9 million Korean won in donations, were given to hospitalized soldiers, but only three sets went to those who were enlisted. Six sets were provided to sergeants, one to a civilian worker, and 155 to generals. One unit used 10.5 million Korean won in donations for holiday gifts, providing generals (16 people) with Hanwoo beef sets worth 125,000 Korean won each, officers, sergeants, and civilian employees received gift sets averaging 12,700 Korean won per person, while 80 enlisted soldiers got pizza or hamburger sets averaging 10,000 Korean won each.

Misuse of donations occurred in restricted manners. Instances involved choosing “model officers” from among career soldiers and providing each with 5 million South Korean won as incentive funds, offering 670,000 South Korean won per individual for international travel costs, and distributing 19.2 million South Korean won in incentive money among commanders for enduring training. In a separate incident, 6.7 million South Korean won in donations was utilized to buy hotel stays, buffet coupons, golf memberships, and department store gift cards, which were given out as prizes at a sports event for career soldiers.

In addition, a collaborative inspection conducted by the Board of Audit and Inspection, the Ministry of National Defense, and internal audit teams from each military branch identified several cases where soldiers neglected their security responsibilities. Fifty-two individuals were given warnings and 19 received formal notices for leaving classified military documents (Level 2 or 3) on desks after working hours, not securing storage cabinets with sensitive materials, or leaving encryption devices connected to computers.