Na Kyung-won "Is this the Tang Dynasty army?" Kang Shin-cheol "Cancel what you said"... A war of words between the Budget and Accounts Committee

On the 11th, Minister of National Defense Kang Shin-cheol explained his past statement asking, "Can we trust the U.S. military if a war breaks out with North Korea?" by saying, "It happened because of the media's misrepresentation."

At the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Special Committee on this day, Minister Kang responded to a question from People's Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won, saying, "Did you make a remark asking whether you can trust the U.S. military?" and said, "It was a rebuttal (to the question) and I did not raise any objection to my remarks at the time."

Previously, during the National Assembly audit last month, Minister Kang responded to an opposition lawmaker's point that even the United States, the world's most powerful country, is struggling in the war with Iran, saying, "Then can we trust the U.S. military when a war breaks out with North Korea?"

Minister Kang also responded to Rep. Na's question about the public being anxious as the ROK-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), which was usually held around November every year, was postponed to early next year for the first time in 28 years, saying, "It happened because of the schedule and has nothing to do with the OPCON transfer schedule," and countered, "They're anxious because they're distorting it like that."

In response, Rep. Na shouted back, saying, “Distortion, what kind of distortion is that?” and it escalated into a battle between the two sides.

The war of words between the two led to the investigation of soldiers related to martial law on December 3rd by the National Defense Investigation Headquarters Security Investigation Team.

When Rep. Na criticized Minister Kang, who responded that he would investigate the situation, saying, "Is it the Tang Dynasty army? If you investigate the soldiers who have been dispatched after receiving orders like this, the soldiers will not move even if martial law is activated when real martial law is needed," Minister Kang responded, "It is not for you to publicly say that the South Korean Armed Forces are the Tang Dynasty army."

Then, there was another round of shouting as they strongly countered, "Please cancel what you said. We are not the Tang army."