People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok on Wednesday said the scaling back of South Korea-US joint military exercises amounted to the drills being "effectively deleted."
In a Facebook post, Jang said the exercises were being conducted separately despite being billed as joint training, that field maneuver exercises had been "abruptly canceled," and that only defensive drills were being held while counterattack exercises were dropped. "The duration has also been cut in half," he said.
Jang then turned to President Lee Jae-myung's recent claim that South Korea's defense capabilities were "more than sufficient." "Is the idea to cut back because they're overflowing?" he said. "Defense can never be 100 percent. No matter how much you build up defense capabilities, they never overflow."
He also expressed frustration over Cheong Wa Dae's response to US President Donald Trump's complaint that South Korea was not supporting the Iran war. The presidential office said it was "closely discussing ways to contribute militarily with the US side." Jang said, "Are they now planning to send troops?" He added that any "off-the-wall proposal" would likely be met with a "No thanks" from Washington.
Jang cited a report by US political outlet Politico suggesting that Trump "seems to want to take a swing at South Korea," and said, "Lee Jae-myung made the mistakes, but it will be the people who suffer the consequences."
Turning to President Lee's directive issued Tuesday to "accelerate the push" for a nuclear submarine program, Jang said the project was "impossible without US cooperation." "Nuclear submarines while shaking the Korea-US alliance? That's nothing but empty talk," he said.
He also took aim at Lee's reported order to press ahead with integrating the military academies. "First they said it was to eliminate the risk of coups, now they say it's to prepare for future warfare," Jang said. "I'd like to ask which one they actually mean."
Jang described the Lee administration's security policies as a "frenzied act of self-destruction on national security," and wrote that "if this administration does not stop, the people must be the ones to stop it."
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