People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok criticized the Lee Jae Myung administration on Monday, saying the abrupt return of South Korea's ambassador to the United States, Kang Kyung-wha, "shows the crisis in the South Korea-US alliance exactly as it is."
Speaking at a supreme council meeting at the National Assembly, Jang said the public has lost confidence in the Lee administration's national defense and security policies. "Even the South Korea-US alliance, one of the pillars of our security, is now in crisis," he said.
Jang said the administration appeared ready to push ahead with an early transfer of wartime operational control despite the situation. He criticized it for vowing to pass the necessary legislation this year even though 55 percent of the public oppose merging the military academies while only 34 percent support it.
"The only ones who would be pleased to see the military weakened and the South Korea-US alliance shaken are the North Korean Kim Jong-un regime," Jang said. "National security is not a subject for ideology, politics or experimentation." He issued a stern warning, calling on the government to immediately halt the military academy merger.
Jang also took aim at the special prosecutor offices launched under the Lee administration, saying its four politically driven special counsel teams had spent 6.4 billion won ($4.31 million) on real estate costs alone. "They rented expensive offices in Gangnam and Gwanghwamun and spent hundreds of millions of won on lavish interior renovations," he said. "All of it is taxpayers' money."
He then called for an end to what he called political special prosecutions and demanded a "people's special prosecutor" to address the National Election Commission scandal — one recommended by the People Power Party, with unlimited investigative scope. "Only a people's special prosecutor can restore the suffrage that has been taken from citizens and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Korea," he said.
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