Is South Korea's military suffering a leadership crisis?

South Korea's armed forces are experiencing "a crisis of leadership" as a result of the political turmoil that has engulfed the nation in recent months, according to a former senior army officer. He also accused top politicians of showing disdain for the troops.

The "disrespect" for the armed forces has spread to public criticism of the military in the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk Yeol's  declaration of martial law on December 3, said Chun In-bum, a retired lieutenant general in the Republic of Korea Army and now a senior fellow with the National Institute for Deterrence Studies. 

The Constitutional Court on April 4 impeached Yoon and removed him from office for calling martial law. Yoon's criminal trial began on Monday at Seoul Central District Court, where he is facing charges of insurrection, along with a former cabinet minister and several military commanders and police officials.

Politicians show 'no respect'

Criticism of the armed forces is unwarranted, Chun told DW, because the vast majority of the nation's military personnel have acted appropriately and professionally during the course of what many have described as an attempted coup. The problem, he emphasizes, lies with politicians and the senior military leadership.

"One problem is how civilian political leaders treated the military with no respect," Chun told DW. "The generals who took part in the martial law declaration showed poor judgment but that was not the majority of the military." 

And while the politicians should have applauded those officers who declined to go along with the declaration of martial law, they instead "made them all look like children," Chun said.

At the same time, Chun is also critical of other problems that have crept into South Korea's armed forces.

"In Korean society, an expectation has developed that there will be zero accidents in the military, particularly zero fatalities during training," he said.

And while no officer wants his troops to be injured, the only way to achieve this standard is to degrade the training to a level at which it is ineffective in preparing soldiers for battle, Chun added.

Unfortunately, officers have bowed to that pressure and made training regimens unrealistically simple, he said.

"The result is an untrained military led by people who do not take risks and do not prepare their troops," he said. "And if you are a junior officer and you see the officers above you acting like that and getting promoted, then they will do the same thing."

Lack of training linked to accidents

That lack of training is potentially to blame for a number of incidents that have befallen the military, he said, such as the accidental bombing of a village outside a training zone by fighter-bomber jets in March and an incident later the same month in which a military drone collided with a stationary helicopter, destroying both vehicles.

Dan Pinkston, a professor of international relations at the Seoul campus of Troy University, echoes concerns that problems are creeping into the nation's armed forces.

"If a nation's military becomes politicized, then there are absolutely risks and potential problems that can crop up," he said. "We have seen appointments of defense ministers because of their close relationships — sometimes going back to high school — and those friendships being prioritized over ability."

A 'betrayal' of junior ranks

Pinkston described the senior officers' decision to side with Yoon during the recent crisis as "a real betrayal of the junior soldiers."

"These were the professional soldiers who did as they were told, who broke into the Parliament building because that was what they were ordered to do," he said. "It is a miracle that nobody was killed that night, but those men have been betrayed."

For all the challenges that the South Korean military faces, not least the loss of many of its most senior and experienced commanders as a result of their involvement in the martial law declaration, both Chun and Pinkston believe the nation remains safe.

"We are fortunate that the young men and women of the armed forces are doing their jobs on the front lines," said Chun. "And as soon as we admit that we have a problem higher up, then the sooner we can move on from that."

Edited by: Keith Walker