Will S. Korea see 'civilian' defense minister?
One of President Lee Jae-myung's key campaign pledges made during his latest run was to appoint a 'civilian' defense minister, referring to a nominee with zero to brief military experience.
His pledge came as several high-ranking military officials, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, are currently on criminal trial on charges of conspiring in insurrection and of abuse of official authority tied to impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed Dec. 3 martial law bid. The position is currently filled by acting Defense Minister and Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho, who took on the role following Kim Yong-hyun's resignation after the martial law bid in early December.
Lee kicked off the appointment of members of the presidential office and the Cabinet last week, and all eyes are on who will become the next defense minister amid growing security concerns on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea's advancing nuclear weapons program, coupled with reports of the Trump administration's potential troop cut of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea, has fueled the worries.
In South Korea, the position of defense minister has usually been held by a retired four-star Army general or Navy admiral. Of all 50 defense ministers so far, only five held the position without military experience.
On top of it, most defense ministers were nominated while in active duty or almost immediately after announcing retirement. Though the moves managed to uphold Article 87 of the Constitution of Republic of Korea, which states that 'No member of the military shall be appointed a member of the State Council unless he (or) she is retired from active duty,' it has been criticized for building a tradition that led to lack of reform within the military.
If Lee appoints a 'civilian' nominee, it would mark the first time such a person takes office since May 1961, after former Defense Minister Hyeon Suk-ho, who had no military experience at all, stepped down.
Sources close to the matter said that Lee is considering the five-term lawmaker and ruling Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Ahn Gyu-back as a strong candidate for defense minister.
Ahn is a former chair of the National Assembly's defense committee and a close aide of Lee. He also led the parliamentary committee probing into Yoon's martial law bid. Though Ahn has completed his two-year mandatory military service from 1983 to 1985, he has no professional military background.
Meanwhile, the US law mandates a cooling-off period of seven years between active-duty service and appointment to the Secretary of Defense, aiming to ensure civilian control over the military.
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[Editorial] No retaliation in probes
Special counsels should be neutral figures to avoid suspicions of revenge, oppression Three bills mandating special counsel probes into allegations involving the administration of former President Yoon Suk Yeol were enacted Tuesday following approval at a Cabinet meeting. One of the bills requires special counsels to investigate insurrection and treason charges related to Yoon's failed declaration of martial law. The second bill calls for a probe into allegations against Yoon's wife, Kim Keon Hee. She allegedly accepted luxury goods as bribes, manipulated stock prices and intervened illegally in the People Power Party's nomination of candidates for the National Assembly. The third bill deals with the death of a Marine who drowned while searching for missing flood victims and the presidential office's alleged pressure on officials investigating his death. The bills mark the first legislation for President Lee Jae-myung since taking office last week. Their passage through the Assembly was led by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. Simultaneous special counsels investigating three cases against key figures from the previous administration and possibly lawmakers from the People Power Party are unprecedented. In light of the seriousness of the allegations, the truth needs to be uncovered. But the investigations should be impartial and transparent. If not, they are likely to be caught up in suspicions of political retaliation. Investigations of the allegations in question are either completed or ongoing. They were conducted separately by the prosecution, the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. The government and the ruling party say the legislation was intended to increase the efficiency of the investigations by integrating the separate probes and revealing the overall truth in all three cases, but there is concern about the scale of the investigation and how special counsels are appointed. As many as 120 prosecutors will be assigned to three special counsel teams. This figure is more than half of the number of prosecutors at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, the nation's largest. Hundreds of investigation officers and assistants will also join. Allocating so many resources to the special counsel probes could set back investigations into other cases affecting the lives of ordinary people. Among other provisions, the bills give only the Democratic Party and the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, which almost always stands by the now-ruling party, the exclusive right to recommend special counsels in the three cases. It is hard to dispel worries about the political neutrality of their investigations. The appointment of special counsels is a supplementary system designed to keep those in power from pushing biased investigations. It should be used in exceptional circumstances and only as necessary. But the Democratic Party unilaterally passed bills that expand the scope of special counsel probes and grant nominating authority exclusively to certain parties. It is true that suspicions about the previous administration still need to be addressed, and some investigations have been criticized as insufficient. But in a situation where Lee and the Democratic Party are now in power, it is questionable whether special counsels are even necessary to investigate the previous administration instead of using the existing judicial system. It is difficult to erase suspicions of political motivations. The opposition People Power Party has condemned the bills, arguing that the special counsels' "triple investigations" are political revenge. If the investigations were used as a lever of power for political suppression, as the People Power Party worries, it would be a grave threat to democracy. The special counsel investigations should not split the nation into "us versus them," either. People experienced deep division during the Moon Jae-in administration due to its drive to eliminate "the evils of the past," which led to claims of a political vendetta. Lee vowed to base his government on "integration." If so, the special counsel probes should serve as a just means of revealing the truth and ultimately restoring the rule of law, not a means for retaliation and oppression. That begins with appointing special counsels who are politically unbiased and widely respected.
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Lee, Fiala hail $18b nuclear power deal as 'touchstone' for broader economic exchange
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