“North Korea is firing missiles ...” Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command (ROK-SWC) holds a “model-walking” lecture: “They’re not in their right minds”

[Financial News] As security tensions persist amid North Korean military provocations, a unit under the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command (ROK-SWC) has sparked controversy by holding an event for troops to learn how fashion models walk.
People Power Party lawmaker Park Choong-kwon took direct aim at the issue in a Facebook post on the 4th, saying, “North Korea is carrying out landmine provocations and firing a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles and multiple rocket launchers, yet the Lee Jae Myung administration’s Ministry of National Defense is bringing in fashion models to teach the ROK-SWC how to walk.”
He went on to criticize them sharply, saying, “With the president himself having such a hazy sense of security, the minister is occupied with musicals, corps commanders are standing guard with unloaded guns, and frontline unit commanders are giving special lectures on model walking. They’re not in their right minds.”
He added, “The frontline troops are not to blame,” and pointed out that “the military must feel a deep sense of responsibility for the shame elite troops must have felt.”
Earlier, TV Chosun reported on the 29th of last month on footage from the “K-Walking Performance Military Festival,” held in a gym at the 1st Special Forces Brigade (Airborne), a unit of the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command.
The released footage showed female models wearing high heels and short outfits reminiscent of military uniforms demonstrating how to walk and pose in front of ROK-SWC personnel. With the models watching, some troops also came forward to the platform, swaying their shoulders as they walked like fashion-show models and striking poses.
The unit was among those whose troops were mobilized during the 2024 South Korean martial law crisis. Its former commander, former Brigade Commander Lee Sang-hyun, is currently on trial in connection with martial law.
A military official criticized the event, saying, “I don’t know why they would teach this to ROK-SWC personnel, who have so much to prepare for,” and, “It’s hard to understand why, when the soldiers mobilized for martial law had done nothing wrong, they would instead try to strip away their military identity and turn the unit into something like a civilian one.”
The YouTuber who provided the footage, a former Special Forces noncommissioned officer, also criticized the event, asking, “What does this have to do with a soldier’s confident bearing?” and adding, “The ROK-SWC personnel probably took part because they were ordered to from above, but they must have felt considerable shame.”
As the controversy grew, the Army explained, “During the intensive character-building training period, the unit itself planned and arranged this program so that soldiers could learn proper posture and gait and thereby help establish basic military bearing.” It also acknowledged, “The training content was inappropriate because it did not suit the unit’s characteristics or the troops’ level of understanding, and the prior review was inadequate.”
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