President Moon Jae-in paid tribute to the marines who died in a helicopter crash three years ago as the nation marked its 73rd Armed Forces Day. 

Presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said in a written briefing that Moon visited the memorial tower erected for the five marines on the MUH-1 Marineon, within the Marine Corps’ first division in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province on Friday. 

There, Moon met with a group of bereaved families and consoled them, the spokesperson said. Some of the invited family members, however, did not attend the event in apparent protest.

During a ceremony marking Armed Forces Day later in the day, the president also called out the names of the deceased officers to commemorate them.
 
The crash took place on July 17, 2018 during a test flight at the Korean Navy’s Sixth Air Wing base. There was speculation the accident was attributed to component defects of the fuselage, but prosecutors dropped complaints against the representatives of the helicopter’s manufacturer, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI).