Hecklers shout down pro-merger speakers at military academy unification hearing

A public hearing on the Ministry of National Defense's plan to merge the Army, Navy and Air Force academies into a single unified national military academy was repeatedly disrupted Wednesday by loud protests and jeers from opponents in the audience whenever pro-merger speakers took the floor.

Just before the hearing got underway at the Defense Convention Center in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, a retired Army colonel stepped up to the moderator's podium and demanded that the ministry skip its prepared presentation — which he said contained nothing new — and extend the question-and-answer session instead.

The colonel continued shouting that the ministry's policy briefing was unnecessary, ignoring repeated calls from the moderator to stand down.

Kim Hong-cheol, director general of defense policy at the ministry, then took the moderator's seat and appealed for order. "This hearing is not being held for the alumni associations," he said. "Please exercise restraint."

The audience responded with a fresh wave of jeers directed at Kim. The retired colonel returned to the podium and resumed his protests at full volume, prompting Park Pan-jun, president of the Korea Military Academy Alumni Association and himself an opponent of the merger, to step up and try to calm him down.

Choe Young-jin, a professor of political science and international relations at Chung-Ang University who appeared as a pro-merger panelist, also drew sustained abuse from the floor. Audience members shouted that he was "acting as Lee Jae-myung's lackey," asked whether his expensive education had produced nothing better, and told him to "stop smiling" and questioned whether he deserved to call himself a professor.

One person believed to be a member of one of the service academy alumni associations stood up and called out for Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back — using an informal form of his given name — demanding that the minister, who did not attend, appear at the hearing.

Park took the podium and warned that decorum could not be guaranteed. "We will try to conduct this hearing as rationally as possible," he said, "but I cannot promise it will stay that way to the end. I want to make clear that this hearing may not proceed in a rational or gentlemanly manner."

The disruptions continued throughout the forum. Opponents heckled and shouted down pro-merger speakers at every turn, then broke into cheers when speakers on their own side took the floor.

The pro-merger panel included Choe, who had chaired the military academy education reform subcommittee of a civilian-military joint special advisory committee; Du Jin-ho, director of the Eurasia Center at the Korea Institute for Strategic Studies; and Jin Ho-young, a former member of the defense reform advisory committee and retired Air Force brigadier general.

The opposition panel consisted of three figures recommended by the Army, Navy and Air Force academy alumni associations: Kang Byeong-cheol, a retired Air Force brigadier general; Jo Gi-hong, a retired Navy colonel; and Kim Se-jin, a retired Army major.