DPK leader slams Washington Post columnist

Rep. Song Young-gil, head of the ruling Democratic Party, speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, wednesday

By Kang Seung-woo

Rep. Song Young-gil, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Wednesday, struck back at tweets by a Washington Post columnist saying that South Korea would be like Afghanistan if the U.S. forces leave the Korean Peninsula.

In addition, he added that Seoul needs to take advantage of the Afghanistan crisis to regain wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces from Washington.

On Monday (local time), Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for former U.S. President George W. Bush, tweeted, “If South Korea were under this kind of sustained assault, they would collapse just as quickly without US support. There's virtually no American ally who could defend themselves without us.”

He said in another tweet, “And the North Korean military is more advanced than the Taliban. The point is South Korea could not defend itself without U.S. help. If you disagree then we can save ourselves billions of dollars every year and withdraw our troops."

In response, the five-term lawmaker denounced it as a “slander” of South Korea.

“It is defamation to say South Korea will collapse if the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) leaves after comparing South Korea, which has the world's 10th-largest budget and sixth-strongest military, with Afghanistan,” Song said on Facebook.

“South Korea has become a country that nobody can overlook and considering political and social capabilities, we have an upper hand over North Korea extraordinarily. It does not make sense to compare South Korea with Afghanistan with poor leadership and corruption.”

Song, the former leader of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, also disparaged Thiessen for his past columns.

“He stood up for the Bush administration's policy on Afghanistan and Iraq and is known for his poor premise and logical leaps. His argument lacks the fact that the USFK presence is also important to U.S. security,” he said.

The lawmaker did not waste the opportunity to stress the importance of the nation establishing self-reliant defense readiness.

“Along with the importance of enhancing the South Korea-U.S. alliance, we should be aware of the significance of boosting independent national defense capability rather than depending on the U.S. forces for inational security,” he said.

“In that respect, the OPCON transition should be carried out as soon as possible.”

The Moon Jae-in administration has been seeking to take over OPCON before his term ends in May 2022, but the U.S. has the final say. The two countries agreed to an assessment after the next full-scale joint exercises.

However, due to protests from North Korea as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, the military exercises are being carried out in a scaled-back manner, dashing President Moon's hopes for OPCON transfer.