Korean man travelled to Ireland and ended his life, court told
A 29-year old man travelled almost 6,000 miles from South Korea last June with the declared intention of ending his life here.
Garda Ruth O’Sullivan told the Clare coroner’s court in Ennis that Chin Won Choi from the Korean city of Daegu was last seen by his family on June 3 “and they stated that he intended to travel to Ireland to take his own life”.
Four days later on June 7, Liscannor man, Cormac McGinley was out for a walk at Kilmacreehy beach between Liscannor and Lahinch when he came across the remains of a dead man.
The beach is located around 12km from the Cliffs of Moher and Mr McGinley told the inquest that the body had only recently washed up as he walked the beach the morning before on June 6 and had not seen it then.
However, mystery surrounded the identity of the remains of the Asian man as there was no ID found on his body; the remains were brought to the mortuary at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
Gardaí took fingerprint and DNA samples from the remains of Mr Choi and contacted Interpol and the Missing Persons’ Bureau. However, it wouldn’t be for another 17 days before there was a break-through in the efforts to identify Mr Choi.
Garda O’Sullivan told the coroner’s court that the Korean embassy contacted Gardaí on June 24 to say that a Korean person was missing in Ireland. The Korean embassy arranged to get DNA specimens from his mother and his father in Korea.
A senior official from the Korean embassy, Third secretary and vice counsel Ms Bomi Kim, told the inquest she received a phone call last June “from our Minister of Foreign Affairs informing me there were concerns for a Korean national who had entered Ireland”.
The inquest was told that Mr Choi visited his mother on June 3 and made his way to Ireland on June 4 at around 10pm. Immigration authorities here said that Mr Choi had only €500 with him upon entry and had said he was on a short trip.
After Mr Choi’s father came to Ireland to formally identify his son’s remains, Garda O’Sullivan and the embassy official, Ms Kim, attended with Mr Choi at Shannon crematorium last July for the cremation of his son’s remains.
Mr Choi’s family found a letter where their son said that he no longer wished to live.
No evidence was heard at the inquest as to when, how or where Mr Choi entered the water. However, County Coroner, Isobel O’Dea, stated that the cause of death was poly-trauma consistent with a fall from a height.
Ms O’Dea stated that “we have no idea as to how Mr Choi came to be at the beach. We don’t know if it was suicide or an accident".
