Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back (Defense Ministry) The main opposition People Power Party on Wednesday stepped up pressure on Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back, calling for his dismissal as two public petitions opposing his reform drive gained traction at the National Assembly.One petition, posted on the National Assembly’s public petition system on June 18, calls for Ahn’s impeachment over his push to dissolve the Defense Counterintelligence Command and the ministry’s handling of the death of a reservist during training in May. It had drawn more than 150,000 signatures as of Wednesday.A separate petition opposing the ministry’s plan to merge the Army, Navy and Air Force academies also surpassed 68,000 signatures Wednesday.The People Power Party has seized on the petitions as evidence of growing public backlash against Ahn’s broader reform agenda.Rep. Jeong Jeom-sig, floor leader of the People Power Party, called the surge in signatures “a foretold personnel disaster” and urged President Lee Jae Myung to dismiss Ahn and overhaul the administration’s defense and security policy direction.“People are growing increasingly uneasy about whether they can trust the Lee Jae Myung administration’s defense and security policy,” Jeong wrote on Facebook.Jeong accused the administration of pushing ahead with measures that he said could shake the foundation of national defense without sufficient review or discussion.Jeong also said concerns had grown over the South Korea-US alliance, claiming that differences between the Defense Ministry and the United Nations Command had been exposed over several security issues.He also linked the controversy to reports that the ministry is preparing legislation to allow a pilot program to outsource some rear-area military security duties to private contractors.“The petition is proof that public concern is rapidly growing over whether South Korea’s security is truly safe one year into the Lee administration," Jeong said.Rep. Choi Su-jin, senior deputy floor spokesperson of the People Power Party, also issued a statement on Wednesday, criticizing Ahn’s reform drive as a sign of "the Lee administration’s distorted view of national security."“National security is not a subject for experimentation,” Choi said, urging Lee to dismiss Ahn and overhaul his foreign affairs and security team.Under the Assembly’s petition rules, a public petition that receives at least 50,000 signatures within 30 days of being made public is referred to the relevant parliamentary committee.Once referred, the committee reviews the petition and decides whether to send it to a plenary session. The referral of a petition, however, does not automatically trigger impeachment proceedings.Past impeachment-related petitions that met the threshold and were referred to parliamentary committees have not, by themselves, led to removal from office.