South Korea searches for golf general during tense standoff with North Korea

South Korea is investigating reports that its top military generals played golf over the weekend, instead of dealing with escalating tensions with North Korea.

Yonhap quoted presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung as saying today:

"The Office of the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs has immediately launched an investigation to determine what really happened surrounding the information about the military golf session."

Several local media reports have reported that senior military officers, including generals, visited a military golf course in Seoul over the weekend. The South Korean Defense Ministry confirmed that some generals played golf over the weekend, but stressed that they were not among those commanding sensitive positions. Golf is a popular sport and a form of social interaction in South Korea.

In 2006, then-Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan resigned after a golf outing with businessmen sparked a criminal investigation into alleged lobbying.

In 2007, an air force commander resigned after playing golf while the country mourned the death of a South Korean soldier in Afghanistan. In 2009, the South Korean Defense Ministry fired a military medical commander and court-martialed 50 military doctors for playing the sport while on duty.

South Korea is now facing a possible military provocation from North Korea, which recently announced it was scrapping the armistice agreement, peace treaties signed with Seoul and cutting off inter-Korean hotlines.

According to Sputnik