Considering Difficult Circumstances to Postpone Military Top Leadership Personnel Changes Scheduled for the Second Half of the Year
Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Lee Is a Non-Army Academy Graduate from the 3rd Military Academy
Lee Soon-jin, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The appointment of the Minister of National Defense is expected to take place as early as the 14th, or at the latest sometime next week. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lee Soon-jin (photo) is being strongly considered as the successor.
On the 13th, a government official stated, "The Blue House has completed the personnel screening for the candidate for the next Minister of National Defense and plans to appoint the new minister as early as the 14th," adding, "They have instructed the Ministry of National Defense to prepare for the confirmation hearing." However, it is not yet decided whether the Blue House, which has nearly finalized senior-level appointments, will replace only the Minister of National Defense as a 'one-point' change or include one minister from another department in a full cabinet reshuffle. Therefore, the timing could possibly be pushed to sometime next week.
The Blue House's haste to replace the Minister of National Defense ahead of the cabinet reshuffle appears to be due to the fact that the current Minister, Jeong Kyung-doo, has been in office for over a year and a half, and considering the large-scale personnel changes scheduled for the military leadership in the second half of the year. This is interpreted as an acceptance of internal military demands that it is difficult to delay military personnel changes any further without a set date for the cabinet reshuffle.
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lee, who is strongly mentioned as the next Minister of National Defense, graduated from the Korea Military Academy (KMA) 14th class and was commissioned in 1977. When he was nominated as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September 2015, it attracted attention because he was appointed from the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon (3rd Military Academy) rather than the KMA, which exercises military command authority. He was the first non-regular Army, Navy, or Air Force academy graduate to hold the position in 14 years since former Chairman Cho Young-gil (October 1999?October 2001), who was from the special class. Former Chairman Lee has served as Commander of the 2nd Operations Command, Commander of the Air Operations Command, and Commander of the Capital Corps.
Within the military, there is speculation that if a non-KMA graduate is appointed as minister, the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is likely to be a KMA graduate. It is known that Army Chief of Staff Seo Wook (KMA 41st class), who is from Gwangju, is being seriously considered as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
So far, since the previous Minister of National Defense was Navy veteran Song Young-moo and the current minister is Air Force veteran Jeong, there has been an assessment that an Army veteran is likely to be appointed next. Among the candidates, former first deputy director of the National Security Office at the Blue House Kim Yoo-geun was also mentioned, but it is reported that he was excluded for personal reasons.
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