Who is Ahn Gyu-back, South Korea's first civilian defence minister in six decades

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung nominated Ahn Gyu-back, a five-term liberal lawmaker as defence minister, on Monday. This is the first time in six decades the country will have a civilian chief of the ministry of national defence—a departure from the tradition of appointing retired military generals as the defence minister. 

 

Since a 1961 coup that brought military dictator Park Chung-hee to power, all of South Korea's defence ministers have come from the military. The trend continued even after the country embraced democracy in the late 1980s.

 

The appointment of a civilian defence minister came as several prominent former defence officials, including former defence minister Kim Yong Hyun, face criminal trials over their roles in carrying out martial law last year under then-President Yoon Suk Yeol.

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Ahn, a lawmaker from Lee's Democratic Party, has served on the National Assembly's defence committee and chaired a legislative panel that investigated the circumstances surrounding Yoon's martial law decree. 

 

According to President Lee's Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, Ahn has a  "deep understanding of South Korea's military" and is the right person to "spearhead the changes in the military forces" as Ahn has been part of the National Defense Committee for a very long time.

 

According to news agency AP, Ahn will face a legislative hearing, the process is likely to be a formality, since the Democrats hold a comfortable majority in the National Assembly and legislative consent isn't required for Lee to appoint him. Among Cabinet appointments, Lee only needs legislative consent for prime minister, Seoul's nominal No. 2 job.

 

As the first civilian minister of national defence in 64 years, he will be responsible for leading and overseeing the transformation of the military after its mobilisation in martial law, Kang Hoon-sik, Lee's chief of staff, said in a briefing.

 

Ahn was among 11 ministers nominated by Lee on Monday, with longtime diplomat Cho Hyun selected as foreign minister and five-term lawmaker Chung Dong-young returning for another stint as unification minister a position he held from 2004 to 2005 as Seoul's point man for relations with North Korea.

Defence