[imText1]On the 17th, defense minister Yeun Gwang Woong said, “Because we have not held our own operation order authority, our sovereignty have been violated” in the National Defense Committee. But after that, he changed expressions: the sovereignty violation into sovereignty restriction and then into “not a matter of sovereignty”. Thus, he has been facing a political problem.
It had been expected that the redemption problem of a wartime operation order authority would be debated in the meeting of the National Defense Committee. However,the expressions minister Yeun Gwang Woong used became a hot issue.
On that day, minister Yeun first claimed that, “Since a wartime operation order authority violates sovereignty, it should be redeemed for our self-reliant defense”. Right after the claim, the members of other opposition parties blamed him a great deal for that and finally the meeting stopped for a while.
In the resumed meeting, chairperson Kim Seung Gon of the National Defense Committee recommended him to change his expression, sovereignty violation into ‘sovereignty restriction’. He accepted the recommendation. However, the members of other opposition parties kept blaming him so that finally he said that, “it was not a matter of sovereignty”.
The Grand National Party made a statement and demanded minister Yeun to resign. Furthermore, it demanded the government to reveal what the government and minister Yeun had an intention to say that.
Regarding the ‘sovereignty violation’ of minister Yeun, Na Kyung Won, spokesperson of the Grand National Party, said that, “This is the most terrible thing to happen” and “he should withdraw his mention and be responsible for it”.
Spokesperson Na urged ministry Yeun to resign, saying that, “the co-authority of operation orders between Korea and the U.S is not the sovereignty violation but the sovereignty protection” and “minister Yeun spoke for the people in charge of North Korea”.
The controversy was worse. Minister Yeun said that because we do not have our own operation order authority North Korea ignores us and try to negotiate only with the U.S’. His claim seems that the ‘blockade policy against South Korea and control the U.S’ was produced by the co-author of the operation order authority.
Mentioning his career in army minister Yeun showed his wish that, “For 20 years I have reported the wishes and core opinions of high ranking military officers to presidents. I would like to make Korean defense into complete, real Korean defense to realize the wishes of the next generation”. It seems that military officers have strongly wanted to realize ‘self-reliant defense’.
However, such a mention of minister Yeun is not different from the opinions of the meeting of former defense ministers, Sungwoohoi and Veterans Association.
Minister Yeun stated that, “If the operation order authority is redeemed and defense road map passes, I would not stick to this position”.
Regarding this, spokesman Na claimed that, “The Roh administration revealed its intention which has been covered up” and “bringing up the operation order authority matter shows the possibility of a certain scheme with North Korea”.
In the meanwhile, after the redemption problem of the operation order authority was discussed, ‘information gathering ability’ problem was debated. Regarding that, minister Yeun said that, “the information gathering ability of South Korea is better than that of North Korea”, and “relative comparison will show that the ability of South Korea is better”. Regarding his claim, members of the National Assembly in the meeting could not repress their laughter.
