Park Pan-jun, chairman of the Korea Military Academy General Alumni Association, leaves the Ministry of National Defense building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday after meeting with Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back to discuss the military academy consolidation policy. [Yonhap]
Park Pan-jun, chairman of the Korea Military Academy General Alumni Association, leaves the Ministry of National Defense building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday after meeting with Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back to discuss the military academy consolidation policy. [Yonhap]

The heads of the general alumni associations of the Army, Navy and Air Force academies on Thursday demanded that Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back explain himself and apologize, saying he had "made a mockery" of them during a meeting the previous day.

In a statement released Thursday, the alumni chiefs said they would "no longer trust the Defense Ministry's future policies or briefings" if no satisfactory explanation and apology were forthcoming. They also warned they were considering boycotting a public hearing on the planned consolidation of the military academies, scheduled for Aug. 26.

The groups also said they had come to realize that the defense minister "has no authority to act on the academy consolidation issue, and that any dialogue or recommendation is futile." They publicly called for a meeting with the president, whom they described as holding the real authority and the power to resolve the matter.

According to the alumni chiefs, Wednesday's meeting followed a strict question-and-answer format, with each question receiving a clear answer before the next was raised. The central question they pressed was a request that the ministry consider reforming the academies while keeping the current institutional structure intact.

All participants clearly heard Minister Ahn respond that he would "consider, as one option, pursuing education reform while maintaining the current military academy structure," the alumni chiefs said.

Earlier, the groups had issued a statement describing the meeting as "a constructive and open dialogue" and calling it a positive development. The dispute erupted, however, when the Defense Ministry immediately denied that maintaining the current structure was under consideration.

The ministry said it would "listen to a wide range of views with an open mind," but flatly rejected the alumni groups' account. "It is not true that we said we would consider maintaining the current structure," the ministry said. "We will achieve the best possible reform of military academy education by incorporating various opinions raised, with the establishment of a unified Korea Armed Forces Academy as the foundation."


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