Civilian control of military emerges as key focus of Lee Jae-myung campaign

The Lee Jae-myung campaign is pledging to reinforce civilian control of the military as a way to prevent members of the armed forces from getting involved in an event like President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law imposition on Dec. 3, 2024.

The Lee campaign said Tuesday that subordinating the military to the authority of a civilian leader could put greater checks and balances on the military, with some former generals backing the Democratic Party of Korea candidate to "build back the military."

In a meeting of the Lee campaign's defense committee on Tuesday, retired Maj. Gen. Lee Bo-hyung, who was the commander of the Drone Operations Command established under Yoon, said a new leadership was necessary to "restore the people's trust in the military."

"The last president, and the commander-in-chief of our armed forces, attempted to overthrow the decadeslong principle of the military serving the people, not the other way around," the former Drone Operations Command chief said.

The argument builds on Lee's remarks made Monday after a meeting with university students, saying that it was "time South Korea has a defense minister who is a civilian."

Those in the Lee campaign shaping the Democratic Party presidential candidate's defense and security policies, such as Rep. Ahn Gyu-back, have said one of the key steps in reforming the country's military included ensuring civilian control of the military.

The next defense minister should be someone who has not been in military service, Ahn, who served all of his five terms in the National Assembly's national defense committee, told The Korea Herald.

For a long time, South Korean defense ministers had served in the military, including Kim Yong-hyun, who resigned after admitting his involvement in Yoon's botched martial law attempt.

Lee, advocating for civilian leadership in the Defense Ministry, invited some pushback from the People Power Party.

Rep. Sung Il-jong, the chair of the National Assembly's defense committee, argued that a civilian would not be as well equipped to oversee and decide military affairs as someone who has served in it.

Rep. Boo Seung-chan, who submitted a bill requiring defense ministers to have been retired from duty for at least 10 years, hit back at the notion saying, "the first step to keeping the military under civilian control is to have civilian leadership in the defense ministry."