{"id":30727,"date":"2026-08-07T05:42:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30727"},"modified":"2026-08-07T05:42:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:42:37","slug":"south-koreas-ruling-party-backs-joint-military-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30727","title":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s ruling party backs joint military academy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/3541786051564\/2026\/i\/17860518233057\/v1.5\/South-Koreas-ruling-party-backs-joint-military-academy.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Democratic Party acting leader and floor leader Han Byung-do speaks during a policy meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday, 6 August 2026. Photo by Asia Today&#13;\n                                            <\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">Aug. 6 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> South Korea&#8217;s ruling Democratic Party said Thursday that establishing a unified armed forces academy was a necessary national reform and pledged stronger safeguards against abuses of expanded police investigative authority.<\/p>\n<p>Han Byung-do, acting leader and floor leader of the Democratic Party, told a policy meeting at the National Assembly that the establishment of a joint military academy reflected an &#8220;irreversible trend of the times.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The traditional boundaries between military branches are disappearing because of the characteristics of modern warfare, including artificial intelligence, drones and cyberwarfare,&#8221; Han said. &#8220;We also cannot ignore the practical problem of declining military manpower.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Han referred to President Lee Jae Myung&#8217;s remarks during a Defense Ministry policy briefing Wednesday and criticized what he described as the vested-interest system centered on the Korea Military Academy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Three military coups led primarily by military academy graduates occurred during our modern history, but the academy was never held accountable,&#8221; Han said.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Creating a military devoted solely to the country and its people is the first step toward building a smart military,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We will work closely with the government to establish the necessary institutional framework for a unified armed forces academy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Party proposes safeguards on police investigations<\/p>\n<p>Han also addressed the new criminal justice system scheduled to take effect Oct. 2.<\/p>\n<p>With 57 days remaining before its implementation, he said the ruling party would seek the stable establishment of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency while introducing safeguards to oversee police investigations.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals follow public concern over recent police investigations, including the Jang Yoon-gi case.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As police authority expands, the police must demonstrate a higher level of fairness, transparency and investigative completeness,&#8221; Han said.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed safeguards would prohibit police officers from investigating cases involving spouses, parents, children or other immediate family members.<\/p>\n<p>The party also plans to give the new prosecution office authority to request the replacement of an investigative agency and expand the right of victims to challenge police decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Han asked the Interior and Safety Ministry to establish reasonable personnel and compensation systems to help the new investigative agency recruit qualified employees.<\/p>\n<p>Party credits government measures for easing inflation\n<\/p>\n<p>Han said the government&#8217;s preemptive measures, including a maximum-price system for petroleum products, helped reduce the annual consumer inflation rate to 2.8% in July.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This demonstrates that a swift government response can meaningfully reduce the burden on the public,&#8221; Han said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the government would maintain the maximum-price policy this month, continue discount programs for agricultural, livestock and fishery products and work to minimize heat-related harm among vulnerable people.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Party floor spokesman Kim Sung-hoe also pressed for a plenary parliamentary session next Thursday to process 35 pending bills that had passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact that it is immediately before the party convention has nothing to do with lawmakers opening a plenary session at the National Assembly,&#8221; Kim said.<\/p>\n<p>Kim also discussed a public recommendation committee formed to select candidates for a special counsel investigation involving the National Election Commission.<\/p>\n<p>He said the committee would request recommendations from the Korean Bar Association and the Korean Association of Law Schools by Friday and proceed quickly under the legally required timetable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/p>\n<p>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260806010001933\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260806010001933<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic Party acting leader and floor leader Han Byung-do speaks during a policy meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday, 6 August 2026. Photo by Asia Today&#13; Aug. 6 (Asia Today) &#8212; South Korea&#8217;s ruling Democratic Party said Thursday that establishing a unified armed forces academy was a necessary national reform and pledged stronger safeguards&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/i\/3541786051564\/2026\/1\/17860518233057\/v1.5\/South-Koreas-ruling-party-backs-joint-military-academy.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}