PPP ramps up pressure on defense minister over military service desertion allegations

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) on Sunday increased pressure on Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back to prove that allegations that he deserted during his military service are untrue and called on President Lee Jae Myung and the presidential office to take responsibility if they are. 

“If the claim […] is true, then [President Lee] and the presidential office would be no different from others who abuse state power,” Choi Bo-yun, the PPP spokesperson, said in a statement.

“The head of the Ministry of National Defense should be responsible for maintaining discipline among Korea’s 450,000 service members and safeguarding national security, but he is instead shaking the nation over allegations that he deserted his military service in the past.”

Kim Young-soo, the head of a public interest whistle-blower center, filed a complaint against Ahn earlier this month.

On Monday, Kim announced that he had filed the police complaint against Ahn for allegedly violating the Act on Testimony and Appraisal Before the National Assembly. He claimed that Ahn had deliberately been absent without leave while serving as a supplementary service soldier, resulting in an extension of his military service by the length of his unauthorized absence.

Ahn, who was called up for 14 months of supplementary service on Nov. 5, 1983, should have completed his service on Jan. 4, 1985, according to Kim. However, the military police caught him after he was absent without leave for about seven months beginning around June 1984 and detained him for 30 days.

Kim claimed that Ahn was then required to serve an additional seven months to make up for the period of unauthorized absence. Including the 30-day detention, his service was extended by a total of eight months, and he was discharged on Aug. 31, 1985.

The allegations were previously brought up during Ahn’s National Assembly confirmation hearing in July of last year. He denied the accusations at the time, saying that he had lived a life “without a single thing to be ashamed of.”

He also explained that his military service record does not accurately reflect what happened and referred to himself as a “victim of military administrative errors.”

However, PPP spokesperson Choi claimed that the public remains angry about the allegations, which she described as “detailed.”

“The allegations are strikingly detailed,” she said. “They include seven months of unauthorized absence, being apprehended by a military police arrest team, serving 30 days in a military detention facility and completing an additional eight months of service.”

She added that Kim, who raised the allegations, publicly declared, “If what I said is false, I am willing to accept any punishment,” including being sued for defamation.

She then criticized Ahn for portraying himself as a “victim” while refusing to release what she called the one document that would immediately settle the matter: his military service record.

“Is the personal military service record of a defense minister who served as a supplementary service soldier some kind of secret that could threaten national security?” she said. “If he has nothing to hide, there is no reason not to disclose [his record].”

And if the allegations are proven true, she noted, then Ahn would effectively be “a fugitive […] now commanding the very military police who once chased him, as well as 450,000 service members.”

Such a case, she said, would be “the greatest disgrace in the history of Korea’s military and a grave affront to the nation.”

Choi also brought up Ahn’s confirmation hearing last year, when the allegation emerged.

“If the allegations […] are confirmed, the explanations that he gave during his confirmation hearing would amount to deception of both the public and National Assembly,” she said. “If the presidential office knew about this critical flaw and still pushed ahead with his appointment, this would be […] an abuse of state power that sacrificed national security.”

She also accused Ahn of using the proposal to merge the Army, Navy and Air Force academies as “a shield to cover up his own shortcomings,” calling the plan a hasty attempt to dismantle a century-old pillar of Korea’s defense.

The Lee administration faced backlash from military cadets after fast-tracking a plan to merge the Army, Navy, and Air Force academies.

Ultimately, Choi argued, Ahn has lost even the minimum moral qualifications required to lead the military and oversee national security policy.

“Ahn should immediately disclose his military service record to the public,” she said. “If he neither clears up the allegations nor resigns voluntarily, the National Assembly will move to impeach him in accordance with the people’s will.”

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok also weighed in on the case through Facebook that same day.

“It was strange enough that a former supplementary service soldier became the defense minister. It now appears that he may not even have properly completed his military service,” Jang wrote. 

Like Choi, he argued that the controversy could be resolved simply by releasing Ahn’s military service record.

“Is it taking time because they’re fabricating it?”

Jang went on to blame President Lee.

“This is ultimately [the president’s] responsibility,” he wrote, claiming that the administration’s measures — including dismantling the Defense Counterintelligence Command, pulling back from the demilitarized zone, replacing armed border guards with baton-wielding personnel, outsourcing base security and proposing to merge the three military academies — were weakening Korea’s armed forces.

He added that the impeachment petition against Ahn has surpassed 310,000 signatures, with a separate impeachment petition against Lee approaching 530,000.

“The day that the two of them go to prison together is not far off,” he wrote.

As of 9:20 a.m. on Sunday, the impeachment petition against Ahn had garnered 317,019 signatures.

According to the petition, launched on June 18, public concern has grown over national security and troop safety because of the dismantling of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, the redistribution of its core functions and an “inadequate” response to the death of a reservist.

The petition will remain open through July 19.

BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]