'The shorter skirts are the better,' says defense chief in pep talk

South Korea's Defense Minister Song Young-moo speaks in a mess hall before a lunch with soldiers at the Joint Security Area in the Panmunjeom truce village, Nov. 27. Arriving at the hall late, he promised the soldiers that his speech before the lunch will be short, saying, "the shorter skirts are the better." / Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

Of all the remarks to boost the morale of South Korean soldiers protecting the inter-Korean border, he picks the wrong one.

Making a sexual remark may boost male soldiers' morale, but Defense Minister Song Young-moo chose the wrong place at the wrong time when he visited the Joint Security Area (JSA) Monday.

Two weeks after a North Korean soldier was shot five times when he dramatically escaped to the South through the JSA in the Panmunjeom truce village, Song visited the scene.

Besides checking out the scene, he met and encouraged South Korean soldiers for managing the incident well.

Song met the soldiers at a lunch in a mess hall, where he arrived late. Being apologetic, he cut short his talk so the soldiers would not have to wait long before eating.

"It's not fun to listen to someone haranguing on and on before a food table," Song said. "People say that the shorter speeches and miniskirts are the better, right?"

The soldiers replied with a thunderous "Yes, sir." Song finished his speech by saying he had come to the JSA to deliver the public's praise for them for saving the badly wounded North Korean.

But Song's "miniskirt" comment made headlines that suggested his choice of words was sexually offensive.

News of the comment spread quickly, and the ministry's public relations team realized that to quell the outcry, the sooner the chief apologized, the better.

"We apologize that the minister's speech was unintentionally mixed with his apology for being late for lunch and that he used an inappropriate expression to explain why he would only make a short speech," the ministry said Monday.

Sexual remarks like Song's are traditionally popular in army jargon, but considering the edgy atmosphere at the JSA since the shooting, he picked the wrong place to make such a joke, said a JTBC news anchorman.

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