[In depth interview]Korea’s CSI: well regarded, understaffed

Seo Joong-seok, the head of the National Institute of Scientific Investigation’s forensic department, aims to protect people and to help investigators in their judgement. The country’s top forensic pathologist, who has been on the job for 18 years, has these watchwords inscribed in Chinese calligraphy, framed and hung on the wall of his office. Recently the institute has been flooded with DNA samples from a series of brutal kidnappings and murders. Seo agreed to be interviewed recently by Kim Chong-hyuk, JoongAng Ilbo’s city news editor, as the institute marked the 53rd anniversary of its establishment.

Q. Why did you become a forensic doctor?
A. When I received my doctoral degree in pathology from Chung-Ang University’s medical school, I was offered a position at a medical school outside Seoul. But I hesitated because I would have had to live apart from my family. Then, I read about an opening at the National Institute of Scientific Investigation and started working there to gain some experience. At first, I just planned to work here for two years but eventually I found the work very interesting.

What interested you the most?
Medical doctors cure patients. But forensic doctors cannot do that. Instead, we save the souls of people who had been killed or the living falsely accused of a crime. I feel rewarded when forensic science reveals the truth. Forensic doctors are people who try to discover the truth behind an accident or a death.

Do you learn this instantly in an autopsy on a dead body?
Not really. The autopsy is conducted on a frozen corpse, and it is hard to find out the truth just in this way. When a person is killed, a forensic doctor should examine the scene of the crime. That is how forensic doctors in other countries work. When I was working at an office in Daejeon, I often went to murder scenes and realized that many theories in textbooks were wrong. For instance, the extent of postmortem rigidity varies a lot according to the weather and other external circumstances.

How often does a forensic doctor at the institute conduct an autopsy?
One forensic doctor conducts about 250 to 350 autopsies per year. With the introduction of a new jury system, forensic doctors will also have to attend court trials. I don’t know how we are going to handle the workload.

What is the most difficult body to examine?
Bodies from traffic accidents and medical accidents are the toughest ones. In case of traffic accidents, it is extremely difficult to make a judgment just based on the body because we cannot go to an accident site. In medical accident cases, we cannot find answers no matter how long we examine a body unless we have the medical treatment records and can ask the doctor why he or she treated the patient in that way.

Why is it difficult to figure out the cause of death in car accidents?
Forensic science is not just about finding the cause of death. We surely can find it easily. But if a person is hit by multiple vehicles, we have to verify which car caused the deadliest wound. In the United States, most people are killed by gunshots. Unlike in our country, not many people die from falling from high places in the United States. Forms of death differ according to a country’s culture, and in our country, they are really complicated.

What’s the most memorable incident you’ve encountered in your 18 years as a forensic pathologist?
Do you remember North Korean agents infiltrating Gangneung, in Gangwon Province, in the 1990s? The army did not initially intend to conduct autopsies on the dead spies but they did eventually. By analyzing what the agents ate, the army could figure out the route that the spies took. In the end, the army succeeded in arresting all the spies in that mission. When our consul was killed in Vladivostok, we proved that he was killed by a poisoned needle, refuting the Russian government’s conclusion. There are countless such cases that I can recall.

People say our country’s autopsy techniques and DNA analysis are among the world’s best. Is it true, and why?
Our forensic doctors have incredible techniques because we have conducted so many autopsies. In my opinion, we have world-class DNA analysis skills for identifying dead people. In the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia in 2004 and when an airplane crashed in Nepal, foreign doctors were all surprised to see us identify the victims.

Do you have special know-how in DNA analysis?
The most important thing is to find samples of a suspect’s semen, blood, saliva or other physical traces at a crime scene. As long as we have evidence, the rest involves just putting them in machines and waiting for the results.

Do you feel scared when you conduct an autopsy?
Why should I? Dead bodies are our teachers. By analyzing their deaths, we learn and accumulate experience. We know very well that we have to show respect for the dead people and protect their rights. I owe it to the dead [to do right by them]. When there was a fire at a refrigerated warehouse in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, we went there and helped collect the bodies of the dead.

I heard that the forensic department has a staff of 18 while it needs at least 25.
Yes. While the workload is heavy, we get paid relatively little. As medical students do not learn how to conduct an autopsy in school, they do not have a clear idea of the work. Thus, police, the institute and colleges are trying to work together. For instance, forensic doctors from the institute go to colleges and teach professors and students about conducting autopsies. We already have such a class at Korea University and will soon open a new class at the Catholic University of Korea. The institute will also have a building on the new campus of Pusan National University.

Do you think forensic doctors should be dispatched to crime scenes and decide how to solve each case as in U.S. TV shows?
In other developed countries, forensic doctors work that way. [The institute] has to scientifically analyze each case and police has to search for suspects based on the analysis. To dispatch forensic doctors to crime scenes, we need many more doctors than we have now. Doing so will enable us to find and arrest more culprits.

What difficulties do you have as a forensic doctor?
I want to ask people not to make political interpretations on the results of an autopsy. We are doctors and scientists. For instance, when autopsy results on a protester who died during a rally was different from what the supporters of the victim thought, they thought we manipulated the result for the government. I cannot stand such a perception about us.
Everyone hates death. But please change your perspective toward people who deal with death. I have two daughters and they do not tell their friends that their father is a forensic doctor. I hope the government provides us systematic support so we can take pride in what we are doing.

By Park Yu-mi JoongAng Ilbo [soejung@joongang.co.kr]