Secretary of Defense Nominee Confirmation Hearing
Kim and Yoon’s seniors from Chungam High School led the transfer
“Former Government Manual” for Excessive Security
On the 2nd, at the confirmation hearing of Defense Minister nominee Kim Yong-hyun, the opposition party criticized him for being an unqualified person, focusing on the controversy surrounding the relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan and the controversy over excessive security while serving as the head of the presidential security service. Nominee Kim confronted the suspicions and controversies surrounding him head-on, refuting them. Nominee Kim is a senior by one year at Chungam High School for President Yoon Seok-yeol, and led the ‘Yongsan relocation’ as the head of the security team of the task force (TF) for the relocation of the Blue House.
Democratic Party lawmaker Park Beom-gye claimed on this day that “they violated the National Property Act by announcing the relocation before the Ministry of Strategy and Finance gave approval (for the relocation of the Office of the President) in July (2022), and even used civil servant commuting expenses and security guard meal expenses (for the relocation),” and that “this is a relocation that involved hasty, deceptive, and dereliction of duty.” In response, candidate Kim refuted, “The Moon Jae-in administration approved all of the 49.6 billion won (of the Office of the President) relocation costs at the time, so it doesn’t make sense to say something like this.”
When Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sun-won pointed out that “the presidential office, the minister of national defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s offices are all within a 225m radius. A few conventional ballistic missiles from North Korea could level the area,” and that “it would be an act of treason to hand over our war command center to the enemy,” candidate Kim responded that “the underground bunkers in the Yongsan presidential office and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are much stronger than the existing underground bunker in the Blue House.”
Candidate Kim denied the suspicion of external pressure on the investigation, saying, “In any country, the presidential office phone number is managed as a national security number. I cannot confirm that,” and “I have never called anyone in relation to that incident,” in response to Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Gyu-baek’s question about who used the extension number of the presidential office, “02-800-7070,” through which the parties involved in the investigation received calls.
Regarding the controversy over excessive security, the so-called “mouth-gagging,” Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Hee criticized, saying, “It’s almost at the level of (the president’s) mood security,” and “I’m worried that if a candidate like this becomes the Minister of National Defense, it will be excessive and the judgment could be wrong.” On the other hand, candidate Kim countered, “It was a reasonable measure according to the security manual that previous governments have applied equally.” He also said, “Is it ‘good’ that the Moon Jae-in government did that just 2-3 years ago, and is this government ‘evil’?” and “Double standards are wrong.”
Candidate Kim responded to a ruling party lawmaker’s question about “what do you think about securing nuclear armament potential?” by saying, “That is included among all possibilities.” This is interpreted as suggesting that in the worst case scenario, we could also pursue independent nuclear armament.
On this day, when Democratic Party lawmaker Boo Seung-chan raised his voice while raising suspicions about the relocation of the presidential office and access to the Hannam-dong residence, candidate Kim and the other lawmaker exchanged words, saying, “Watch what you say.”
Military expert reporter Yoon Sang-ho [email protected]
Reporter Seungwoo Lee [email protected]
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2024-09-04 09:27:26