PPP slams defense minister over remarks on trusting U.S. forces in event of war with North Korea

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) on Wednesday accused Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul of undermining the South Korea-U.S. alliance over his remarks about trusting the U.S. military in the event of a war with the North.

Kang came under fire during a parliamentary audit on government bodies on Monday, when he questioned whether the South can “really trust the U.S. military” if war broke out with North Korea in response to an opposition lawmaker’s concerns over Seoul’s push to retake wartime operational control (Opcon) from Washington.

“The defense minister’s remarks are undermining the trust in the 73-year-old alliance,” PPP chief spokesperson Park Choong-kwon said in a commentary.

Park criticized Kang for pushing ahead with the Opcon transfer despite not having held any talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth since taking office last month.

He urged President Lee Jae Myung to dismiss Kang, saying that he is no longer qualified to serve as defense minister.

Other lawmakers denounced Kang’s remarks as well, questioning his view on national security.

“Is it not because the defense minister is like this that North Korea is openly planting land mines and aiming its weapons at us?” five-term Rep. Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook.

Former PPP lawmaker Yoo Seong-min also called for Kang’s dismissal, emphasizing that the South Korea-U.S. alliance is central to protecting the lives and safety of South Koreans.

The Ministry of National Defense earlier said that Kang was not questioning the ally’s credibility but responding to an opposition lawmaker who argued against a hasty Opcon transfer, citing the challenges even a military superpower such as the United States faces in its ongoing conflict with Iran.

The PPP also took issue with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young’s description of land mines as defensive weapons.

Chung faced criticism from opposition lawmakers during a parliamentary audit on Tuesday for saying that land mines are defensive weapons and that the land mine explosion in the demilitarized zone on Sept. 21 cannot be seen as a deliberate attack by North Korea.

Three South Korean soldiers were injured in the blast.

“I do not know what to make of a unification minister who defends North Korea by suggesting that the North may have naively mistaken the territory as its own and failed to realize that our soldiers could have been injured,” PPP Rep. Kim Gunn wrote on Facebook.

Rep. Kim, a former diplomat, stressed that the North had deliberately planted the mines despite knowing that they could injure South Korean soldiers.

Yonhap