President Lee chose the first civil defense chief of South Korea in 64 years

Seoul: South Korean President Li J. Mayung nominated a five-term liberal legalist as the Defense Minister on Monday with a tradition of appointing retired military generals. The announcement came in the form of several major former defense officers, including former-defense minister Kim Yong Hyun, last year under the then President Yun Suk Yeol, under the then Suk Yeol, he faces high-profile criminal trials on his roles in carrying martial law, who were convicted on allegations of rebellion and removed from the post. Lee’s Democratic Party, Ahan Gu-back, has worked in the Defense Committee of the National Assembly and presided over a legislative panel, who investigated the circumstances around this martial law decree. The ruling move of Yun included the deployment of hundreds of heavy armed soldiers in the offices of the National Assembly and Election Commission, which the prosecutors described as an illegal attempt to close the legislature and arrest political opponents and election officials. This made a call to strengthen the civil control over the army, and Lee promised to appoint a Defense Minister with a civil background during his election campaign. Since the 1961 coup, the military dictator Park Chung -Ai was brought to power, all the Defense Minister of South Korea came from the army – a trend that continued even after the country’s democratization in the late 1980s. While AHN will face a legislative hearing, the procedure is likely to be a formality, as Democrats have a comfortable majority in the National Assembly and there is no need for legislative consensus to appoint Lee. Amidst cabinet appointments, Lee only requires legislative consent for the nominal number 2 job of Prime Minister, Seoul. Lee’s Chief of Staff’s Kang Hoon-Sike said in a briefing, “As the first civil minister of national defense in 64 years, he will lead and take care of the army after mobilization in martial law.” AHN was one of the 11 ministers nominated by Lee on Monday, with a long-term diplomat Cho Hyun as Foreign Minister and a five-functioning lawist Chung-Younga, a return to another tenure as the Minister of Integration, was organized as a point man of Seoul for relations with North Korea from 2004 to 2005.