Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-baek [Photo=Yonhap News]

If a leader responsible for national security commits the falsehood of "perjury" before the legislature to conceal his past, it is not merely an act of individual deviance; it is an act that erodes the moral foundation of the national community. Perjury committed within the public space of the National Assembly is no different from plunging a dagger into the heart of a liberal democratic society. 

1. The falsehood of perjury is an act of destroying public trust in the state

One who deceives the people with lies is not a leader, but merely a weak individual accelerating their own downfall. Nietzsche defined the "Übermensch" (Superman) as one who does not evade the truth but fully shoulders the responsibility for their own life and actions. 

However, the current security chief is suspected of disseminating further false information from his current position to conceal his past—specifically, his record of military desertion. 

Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill me makes me stronger." This only applies to those who are truthful. A person who must constantly produce new lies to protect previous ones eventually becomes a "slave to falsehood." 

Perjury goes beyond simply distorting facts; it is an act of breaching the "contract of public trust," which is the foundation of the state system. A person who abuses power to hide their past contradictions and weaknesses is nothing more than a hollow leader lacking "pure will."

2. A leader who has lost truth and morality must resign voluntarily 

If the Minister of National Defense, who should uphold national discipline and protect the honor of the military, has desecrated the military administrative system for his own comfort, his legitimacy as a leader has already ended. The legal facts—perjury and violation of the State Public Officials Act—prove that he has already lost "honesty," the minimum qualification for holding public office. 

He must now decide whether to preserve at least a shred of human dignity and pride by resigning from all positions, or to face a disgraceful downfall through the judgment of impeachment as stipulated by the Constitution. 

Immediate resignation is the only path to restoring the dignity and normalcy of a public official, and it is the last opportunity to halt his own downfall. I hope he will no longer destroy the fundamental human value known as "truth." 

3. The self-righteousness and cowardice of the appointing authority undermine constitutional values and morality

An even more serious issue is the behavior of the appointing authority. If the President appointed the Minister of National Defense despite knowing he was unfit to command the military, this is not merely a personnel failure, but a disruption of state affairs that undermines constitutional values and morality, and can be defined as the height of "nihilism" that eats away at the vitality of the community. 

It is difficult to avoid criticism that this is a cowardly complacency where the highest value of "truth" was traded for the lower value of "political calculation" to maintain power. 

This is not using power as a means for national interest and self-overcoming, but degrading it into a safety device to protect one's own position. 

A true ruler takes responsibility for their own judgments, discernment, and decisions, and strictly controls the morality of those under their authority. However, if the appointing authority condoned the minister's immorality while aware of it, they have effectively abandoned their role as a leader and devolved into a "slave to a powerless system."

The reason a dictator with "shameful secrets" keeps an unqualified person with many weaknesses by their side is likely because they thought it would be easy to control a subordinate whose weaknesses they held. This is a wicked collusion aimed at building the foundation of one's rule not on the support of honest and capable people, but on the blind loyalty of those who are held hostage by their own vulnerabilities. 

This is not the politics of the strong, but the archetype of a sick power that instrumentalizes the state to hide its own moral fragility. 

4. The end of power built on a citadel of lies is only downfall

The moment an appointing authority places an immoral figure in a key government position, they spread the poison of nihilism across the entire nation, suggesting that "lying is more efficient for advancement than truth." This is equivalent to sending a message to the members of the community that "honesty is incompetence, and lying is a survival skill," which is destructive to human ethics. 

Such a message hinders the healthy growth of the community and turns everyone into a weak crowd devoid of truth. 

Nietzsche said, "When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." It means that the action and reaction of physics occur simultaneously in the spiritual world. There are no secrets in the world that can be hidden forever.

When the leader of a community chooses to sacrifice truth for short-term gain and maintains a facade of arrogance and weakness instead of exercising common sense and a commitment to mutual prosperity, what remains is only division, resentment, and downfall.

The citadel of lies becomes a prison as solid as it is tall, trapping the powerful themselves. The cowardly attempt to "dismiss charges" is merely an atrocity that destroys national values.

A political atrocity that attempts to excise a diseased area with polluted hands is not surgery to remove deep-rooted evils, but another form of self-mutilation. Power that rejects the truth eventually walks the path of self-destruction. Whenever power betrays the common sense of the people, history has, without exception, placed it on the judgment seat. Arrogance and self-righteousness can never be cured and will ultimately end in a painful downfall. 

If the appointing authority remains silent while public outcry demanding the dismissal of Minister Ahn Gyu-baek for his perjury and destruction of security reaches the heavens, the arrows of anger will turn toward the appointing authority. 

Any further delay will not be able to avoid the "prelude to a mutual downfall." I hope they realize that power collapses not from external attacks, but from internal self-destruction caused by the arrogance and self-righteousness where the means take precedence over the ends. 

◆ Commissioner Park Pil-gyu

Editorial Writer, Han-Mi Ilbo

Korea Military Academy, 40th Class