First Female 2-Star Officer Warns Against Opposition’s North Korea Sympathizers in Parliament

The First 2 Star Female Officer Kang Sun Young, a former Army Aviation Operations Commander, who the People Power Party recruited as a candidate for the April 10th general election, criticized the proportional representation candidates whom The Democratic Alliance of Korea elected, the proportion satellite party of Democratic Party of Korea, as the share of civic group.

On the 11th, Kang met with reporters at the party’s headquarters in Yeouido and said, “We shouldn’t create a situation where we are fighting and exhausting our strength with those who still sympathize with the claims of North Korea that we are still in a hostile relationship by letting them into the parliament.”

She continued, “I served as a female officer for 31 years and four months. I was sent as a joint exercise planning officer at the Joint Chiefs of Staff for three years from lieutenant colonel to colonel,” explaining, “The purpose of the joint exercise is not to fight when war breaks out, but to deter.”

She then argued, “So, that’s the reason why North Korea makes a fuss when we conduct joint exercises. (The Democratic Union candidate) opposes such an important thing,” and “If they enter the parliament and become a constitutional institution, I think they will just shout anti-American slogans instead of having a normal conversation for our national security.”

This remark suggests that the former commanding officer Kang targets a personnel member, Jeon Ji Ye, a member of the steering committee of the Korea Financial Justice Party, who received the first proportional representative sequence number from the Democratic Alliance of Korea. Jeon is a former activist of the Korea Council for Unification Movement, which has protested against the Korea-US joint training.

Regarding Lim Tae Hoon, a former director of the Center for Military Human Rights, who is a candidate for the Democratic Alliance of Korea, Kang said, “He is a quite difficult person to deal with,” and “Military human rights are crucial, but they should not be divisive.”

She said, “There can be incidents where people fight against each other using human rights as an excuse due to some abnormal parts within the military,” and “I feel sorry for the female commanders who feel the pressure due to the personnel who divide and cause discord when the role of female militaries is central under the modernized and scientific military.”

After being commissioned in 1990, General Kang entered the Army Aviation School in 1993 and graduated at the top of her class as a rotary-wing (helicopter) pilot among the 95th graduates. General Kang holds several first titles, including the first female pilot, the first female officer in the Special Forces, the first female team leader in a Special Forces battalion, the first female aviation battalion commander, and the first female aviation brigade commander. She has served as the commander of the 60th Aviation Brigade, the 11th Aviation Brigade, the Chief of Staff of the Aviation Operations Command, and the dean of the Aviation School.