PPP-defense minister

SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- 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 North Korea.

Kang came under fire during a parliamentary audit Monday when he questioned whether South Korea can "really trust the U.S. military" if a war broke out with North Korea, while responding 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.

Rep. 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 immediately dismiss Kang, saying he is no longer qualified to serve as defense minister.

Other lawmakers also denounced Kang's remarks, questioning his views 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 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 defense ministry earlier said Kang was not questioning the ally's credibility but was responding to an opposition lawmaker who argued against a hasty transfer of OPCON, citing the challenges even a military superpower like 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 Tuesday for saying that land mines are defensive weapons and that the recent mine blasts in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) cannot be seen as a deliberate attack by North Korea.

"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 mines were deliberately planted by the North despite knowing they could injure South Korean soldiers. Three South Korean soldiers were injured in the Sept. 21 mine blast.

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