Unification Minister Chung Dong-young (left) and Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back are ministers from the Jeonbuk region who were appointed in July 2025 despite the failure to adopt confirmation hearing reports. [Photo = Yonhap News]I apologize for criticizing the native citizens of this country as a North Korean defector living off their hospitality, but I am so dumbfounded and stifled that I feel compelled to cry out.

A year ago, I wrote that the Lee Jae-myung administration is a filthy government assembled from all kinds of dregs, and I am currently awaiting trial for defamation for that piece—yet here I am writing again.

The citizens of this country surely know that South Korea is a nation in a state of armistice, constantly under the threat of aggression from North Korea and China. They must also know that the head of the South Korean military, the Minister of National Defense, holds a position of critical importance.

However, it is reported that the current Defense Minister, Ahn Gyu-back, brazenly stated in front of Air Force Academy cadets on June 15 that Mao Zedong’s motto, "Chucheonbyeongyeong" (處變不驚, stay calm in the face of change), is his own motto.

Leaving aside the content of the phrase, is Ahn Gyu-back unaware that Mao is a sworn enemy who killed hundreds of thousands of South Korean soldiers and citizens and threatened the very existence of this nation?

How wonderful it would have been if Ahn Gyu-back, as a senior figure in South Korea and as Minister of National Defense, had cited the motto of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, "He who seeks death shall live, and he who seeks life shall die," as his own?

Why would the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of Korea choose the motto of an enemy who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his own people as his guiding principle?

How little must Ahn Gyu-back think of the people to be so bold in making such a treasonous, outrageous remark, especially while he himself is suspected of criminal involvement regarding desertion?

Deng Xiaoping, who transformed China from a destitute nation into a global powerhouse, looked to South Korea's hero, President Park Chung-hee, as his role model. Which country does Ahn Gyu-back really belong to?

This is not the only issue. Current Unification Minister Chung Dong-young is cut from the same cloth; not content with repeatedly trying to change the term for North Korean defectors, he is now taking the lead in calling North Korea by its own nomenclature, "the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" or "Joseon."

During the Kim Jong-il era, Chung forced the term for defectors to be changed to "Saeteomin," and in the Kim Jong-un era, he insisted on "Bukhyangmin." Who is Chung Dong-young to arbitrarily carve up the identities of others as he pleases?

It seems that if it would help him show loyalty to Kim Jong-un, Chung Dong-young would willingly fill not only his body and mind but even every cell in his body with the essence of a lackey.

There is no shortage of such people in the Lee Jae-myung administration. Even the Minister of Education, who is responsible for the education of South Korean children, has a record as an offender.

I am not writing this on such a hot day just to expose their crimes.

These traitors are living in luxury on the taxpayers' dime and ruining the country, yet the citizens who form the bedrock of this nation remain completely indifferent.

In a normal society, wouldn't the entire nation be rising up and demanding the execution of Ahn Gyu-back and Chung Dong-young? But the people of this country, warm and well-fed, have no thoughts at all.

Why do they play along with media reports about an actor's great-grandfather being pro-Japanese and spew venomous criticism, while turning a blind eye to the pro-China and pro-North Korea sins of Ahn Gyu-back and Chung Dong-young?

The South Korean public is truly foolish; they treat pro-Japanese sentiment from over a century ago as a sin deserving the death of even the descendants, yet they uphold and serve pro-China and pro-North Korea figures as government ministers.

Because of this foolish public, which was easily swayed by the leftists' "mad cow disease" hysteria and propaganda surrounding the Park Geun-hye impeachment, and which pretends not to see or hear in the face of truth, the core of the Republic of Korea has already rotted to the bone.

It is only because the U.S. military protects us that the name and territory of the Republic of Korea still exist today. If anyone wishes to deny this, let them step forward.

◆ Advisor Kim Tae-san

Advisor to the Hanmi Ilbo and former representative of a North Korean trading company in the Czech Republic. In South Korea, he serves as Vice President of the Institute for North Korean Society, providing deep insight and experience regarding inter-Korean relations and North Korean issues.