Jang Dong-hyeok: 'A president who abandons national defense is no longer a president'

Park Sung-hoon: Administration stuck in 'submissive' view of North Korea

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok. (The Korea Herald)
People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok. (The Korea Herald)

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok criticized the Lee Jae Myung administration Saturday, saying it "keeps going in the wrong direction," after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile into the Donghae.

In a Facebook post that day, Jang said President Lee "cannot say a proper word to North Korea as it fires missiles, nor to the United States as it pressures South Korea on troop deployment, and keeps repeating only his 'pacemaker' claim."

"We must further strengthen our military capabilities and uphold the South Korea-US alliance without wavering," Jang said. "That is what a president must do, and it is the government's responsibility."

Jang also said the proposed consolidation of military academies "is in effect a declaration of abandoning South Korea's national defense," and took aim at the defense minister nominee, who he said had expressed agreement with the view that reclaiming wartime operational control on Sunday poses no problem. "They picked exactly the person who fits the administration's taste," he said.

"Talking about national defense while gutting the military's strength, and speaking of peace while shaking the South Korea-US alliance, is itself a deception of the people," Jang said. "A president who abandons national defense is no longer a president."

Chief Spokesperson Park Sung-hoon also weighed in, saying in a statement that "the Lee Jae Myung government, which persists in 'fake peace' and a lax security posture, is fueling the danger." He said North Korea was "openly escalating its show of force and threatening the safety of our people," yet the administration "remains fixed on unrealistic appeasement and a submissive view toward North Korea."

Park went on to say the government must "reorganize a strong combined South Korea-US defense posture and, on the basis of a firm superiority of strength, prepare resolutely and thoroughly against any further North Korean provocation."


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