President Park Geun-hye reportedly grew furious during Monday’s Cabinet meeting at the news about military officers who went golfing over the weekend.
Golf, or most other sports for that matter, is recommended for officers as both a diversion and physical exercise. But there is a time for everything. Last weekend, the inter-Korean propaganda war was reaching its peak on the eve of the annual Korea-U.S. military drills. We are curious how the U.S. troops arriving for the joint exercise have reacted to the leisurely atmosphere among their Korean counterparts.
Park is right to instruct her aides to ferret out all those lax officers and sternly discipline them. Foreigners are often surprised at the South Korean people’s carefree attitude in the face of North Korean threats. Yet it’s chilling if such apathy to security has spread even to the military.
In a way, however, the nation’s first female president can be said to have provided a ground for loosening military discipline further _ with her nomination of the most unqualified candidate for defense minister.
Park’s nominee, former Army general Kim Byung-kwan, is unfit to be the nation’s defense chief in every way _ not just in terms of ethics and character but in capability.
Kim, involved in scores of scandals including his post-retirement stint as an advisor for a foreign arms broker and various suspicions about real estate speculation during and after active duty, astonished people when he declared he has lived a “life of integrity.” “Of all the investments in properties, I only succeeded in two cases,” he added. We are left to wonder whether he is senselessly candid or has long forgotten such a thing as shame.
Even more pitiably, Kim played golf a day after the South Korean frigate Cheonan sank off the West Sea with 46 sailors aboard in March 2010, and went on a spa tour of Japan in the wake of the North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. Kim said there was little he could do as a retired general but then he should have done nothing, instead of seeking pleasure. Once a general should always be a general, whether in uniform or not.
The military is an organization that lives on honor, respect and trust. We doubt Kim can evoke any of these among his men.
On Tuesday, Kim repeated his request to allow him to serve the nation once again. If his brazen-faced appeals were on cue from his appointer, Koreans have every reason to feel uneasy about the nation’s defense.
And if the president pushes ahead with her appointment of Kim only because he is loyal to her and her deceased parents, people will find an additional reason for feeling restless not only about security but about overall state administration in the next five years.
This is The Korea Times editorial for Wednesday, March, 13, 2013.
