In 1996, during the North Korean submarine infiltration incident in Gangneung, reserve Lieutenant Colonel 이상호, who participated in the operation to eliminate armed combatants, filed for an administrative appeal, requesting recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a service-related injury. He experienced extreme trauma during the Chilseongsan Jongsim Operation, including the loss of Private First Class 강정영, but did not receive psychiatric treatment due to his military ethos. Because he had no psychiatric records for about 29 years after the incident, the Veterans Affairs authorities refused to register him as a national meritorious person, failing to recognize the causal relationship between PTSD and combat. However, reserve Lieutenant Colonel 이상호 argued that enduring hardship was considered more important than psychiatric treatment during his military service, and that the absence of medical records could not be grounds for denying the causal relationship with combat. He seeks to overturn the decision through an administrative appeal.
