KB News Desk
Main opposition People Power Party on Tuesday stepped up calls for Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back’s dismissal for sharing Mao Zedong’s personal motto.
Speaking at a party meeting, floor leader Rep. Jeong Jeom-sig called Ahn’s remarks “bizarre,” and said Ahn was making a mockery of the South Korean military.
Mao is considered to have played a critical role in the outbreak and escalation of the Korean War. Mao, a communist leader and the founder of the People’s Republic of China, approved Kim Il-sung’s plan to invade the South and provided military reinforcements.
“Minister Ahn’s very existence is an insult to the military,” Jeong said, calling for Ahn’s immediate dismissal.
The criticism comes after Ahn visited the Korea Air Force Academy in June. There, he introduced the phrase “Keep calm in the face of adversity” as a motto Mao had held close to his heart, and said that it was his own personal motto.
“In a government that cannot even answer who its main enemy is, the defense minister, who also faces allegations of desertion from his service, proudly touted Mao’s words as if they were a golden rule in front of military academy cadets,” Jeong said. “What country’s military is this, and what country’s defense minister is he?”
Jeong also noted that some theories trace the phrase to Chiang Kai-shek, former president of the Republic of China, now Taiwan, and criticized Ahn for living by a motto without knowing its true origins.
He further said that having such a figure as a defense minister was the reason why “our national security is rotting from within,” while referring to recent military accidents, including an incident in which a frontline unit was found to be guarding the outpost with unloaded guns.
