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.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
TRUDEAU IN TROUBLE: US president-elect Donald Trump reacted to Chrystia Freeland’s departure, saying: ‘Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday quit in a surprise move after disagreeing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats. The resignation of Freeland, 56, who also stepped down as finance minister, marked the first open dissent against Trudeau from within his Cabinet, and could threaten his hold on power. Liberal leader Trudeau lags 20 points in polls behind his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the government and force a snap election. “It’s not been an easy day,” Trudeau said at a fundraiser Monday evening, but
RSS