Lee Jong-myung's solo protest against military academy merger reignites controversy over past record

A solo protest by former lawmaker Lee Jong-myung against the planned merger of the Korea Military Academy has reignited controversy over his past military record and remarks he made about the May 18 pro-democracy uprising.

Lee staged a one-person picket demonstration Wednesday afternoon outside the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan, Seoul, opposing the proposed consolidation of the army, navy and air force academies.

In February 2019, while serving as a proportional-representation lawmaker for the Liberty Korea Party, Lee sparked an uproar at a public hearing on establishing the truth about the May 18 democratic uprising when he characterized the movement as a riot.

The episode has prompted some to question the appropriateness of Lee's past record and the merits of his military honors. At the same time, opposition to the broader push to merge the three service academies has been growing.

When reporters asked Lee about the 2019 May 18 controversy that day, he declined to respond.

He also gave no answer to questions about allegations that a landmine explosion incident in the demilitarized zone had been fabricated or embellished.

Lee is known as the "landmine hero" after losing both legs in June 2000 when, as a battalion commander leading a reconnaissance unit in the DMZ, he stepped on a landmine while trying to rescue a subordinate soldier wounded during a patrol.

The Army mounted an extensive publicity campaign around Lee at the time, distributing a military song celebrating his actions and even producing a musical. The Army, which had been struggling with a credibility crisis, used Lee's story to rehabilitate its image, and Lee went on to win a seat in the National Assembly.

In 2019, however, several news outlets, citing people involved in the incident, reported that the Army's accident investigation may have been fabricated and that significant parts of Lee's heroic account differed from the facts.

According to those reports, Lee had sent an inexperienced incoming battalion commander — unfamiliar with the local terrain — ahead of him during a handover, leading to the accident. Allegations that someone who should have faced disciplinary action was instead recast as a hero have continued to fuel controversy over a military cover-up.

Calls for a thorough reinvestigation followed, but military authorities responded only by saying they were "reviewing the matter" and would "confirm the details."

The Ministry of National Defense has not conducted a separate reinvestigation into Lee's military record. However, the ministry said that if objective evidence proving the record to be false were to emerge, relevant procedures — including a reinvestigation — could be initiated. Under Article 8 of the Order of Merit Act, a decoration may be revoked if the merits cited for the award are found to have been fabricated.

An Army official said that "if objective evidence confirming the falsity of the military record is identified alongside a clear determination of the truth, the relevant procedures will be carried out."

The Korea Military Academy Alumni Association drew a line in an official statement, saying the matter was "not something for the alumni association to address." It added that one-person protests against the academy merger were "something that graduates as well as ordinary citizens are joining voluntarily," and that "at a time when the public's voice on this issue is growing louder, it is not appropriate to raise the past conduct of a specific individual in a way that has no bearing on the facts."