PPP threatens impeachment of defense minister over military record refusal

People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said Monday that if Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back continues to refuse to disclose his military service records, the party will consider filing an impeachment motion against him, treating the refusal as an admission of allegations that he deserted and was confined to a military detention facility.

Speaking at the opening of a party caucus at the National Assembly, Jeong said the PPP had already agreed as a party position to submit a motion calling for Ahn's dismissal on grounds that key defense policies were being pushed through hastily. He added that refusing to disclose the military records was "a matter of an entirely different dimension — one of concealing the truth and deceiving the public."

Jeong also pushed back on the Defense Ministry's claim that releasing the minister's military records would only deepen misunderstandings, calling it "a self-contradictory argument." He said the claim that disclosure would fuel further misunderstanding likely reflected the fact that "what is written in the military records and the explanations Minister Ahn has given so far do not match."

Jeong said the argument of seeking a correction after leaving office was also "hard to accept," insisting that "to dispel these serious allegations that are undermining the minister's leadership, he must request a correction right now."

Earlier that morning, PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok also weighed in at a supreme council meeting, saying that if the allegations were true, "not only should Minister Ahn not be in that position, but the president who appointed him and has not said a single word despite these allegations should not be in that position either."

Jang noted that an online petition calling for Ahn's impeachment had surpassed 300,000 signatures. He added that "if he cannot disclose the military records, that is a confession that there is something he is not proud of, and if he tries to hide it, the allegations will only grow — and as the allegations grow, so will the burden on the administration."

A joint statement from PPP non-incumbent party chapter heads, released at a press conference at the National Assembly, called the allegations surrounding Ahn "a serious and urgent matter that must be fully disclosed to the public immediately, with a decision made on his future." They urged Ahn to "resign immediately if he is not confident enough to disclose his military service record at once."

The statement added that "we cannot entrust the Republic of Korea's defense to someone with very limited military expertise — a short-term conscript who cannot even properly account for his own period of service and who cannot be trusted," urging the Lee Jae-myung administration to "take immediate action on the question of the defense minister's tenure."