Former defense ministers and generals demanded an apology yesterday from President Roh Moo-hyun for denouncing them for failing to retake wartime command of South Korean troops from the US.
In a speech last week -- marked by an outpouring of emotion including banging on a table -- Roh heavily criticized former defense chiefs and generals for opposing his push to retake wartime control, which has rested with a US general under a joint command system since the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Roh said the move was correct and long overdue for a sovereign country. He accused former defense officials of "neglecting their duties" while acting "haughtily with stars" on their shoulders.
PHOTO: AP
"Shame on you!" Roh told a meeting of the presidential advisory committee on unification affairs on Thursday.
Speaking about the country's compulsory military service, Roh also said he was trying to improve the system so that young South Korean men don't have to "rot" in the military for years.
The nation's largest association of former generals demanded that Roh apologize and retract the remarks, accusing him of insulting the military and belittling the "sacred" duty of national defense.
"We, who dedicated our whole lives for national security, cannot contain our disappointment and anger," the association said in a statement at a news conference attended by some 50 members of the association, including about a dozen former defense ministers.
They also demanded the government stop trying to retake wartime control and shorten the compulsory military service period.
All physically fit South Korean men are required to serve in the military for about two years.
The wartime command issue is a hot topic in security-sensitive South Korea. Critics, including the former defense officials, claimed the plan was premature and would undercut deterrence against the North.
The government agreed with Washington in October to transfer the command sometime between 2009 and 2012.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
RSS