Posted October. 04, 2014 04:00,
"My husband was ill for more than 10 years after being injured while chasing a stolen car. How is this not official line of work?"
The late Shin Jong-hwan was a police officer who was in a traffic accident while chasing a suspects car and spent 13 years in a coma and died. His wife, identified as Wang, said this while fighting back tears on Friday.
Shin worked in the police force in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province. While chasing a stolen car that refused to be stopped for examination and fled in March 2001, Shins car overturned on a hill in Hampyeong County and he entered a coma. As Shin`s condition didn`t recover, his wife filed for voluntary dismissal for him in September 2002. She took care of her husband for 13 years, but Shin died on Sept. 8 this year.
Gwangsan Police Station, his former place of work, inquired to the Government Employees Pension Service to allow his being recognized as having died while on duty, but the response was that he was not eligible for widows remunerations. Under the civil servant pension law, the payment of bereaved family benefits was only possible if the civil servant was killed three years after being injured due to injury or illness in the line of work, or having died.
His former co-workers submitted a plea to acknowledge Wang as eligible for widows benefits, while Gwangsan Police Station requested a new review to acknowledge Shin as having died in the line of duty. If the review is not successful, it plans to file a formal objection with the Ministry of Security and Public Administration. Wang said, "I just wanted my husbands death as death on the job to recover his honor."