Rep. Kim Jae-sub of People Power Party (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald) Conservative politicians criticized President Lee Jae Myung over remarks made Wednesday on the Korea Military Academy, accusing him of portraying its graduates as potential traitors. "The president has stigmatized the tens of thousands of KMA-trained officers defending the country as potential traitors," People Power Party Rep. Kim Jae-sub on Thursday wrote in a Facebook post, referring to Lee's saying, "Coups can happen again." Speaking at the Ministry of National Defense's policy briefing Wednesday, Lee noted that most high-ranking generals were KMA graduates.The KMA is an educational institution that produces officers for the Army. Several key figures, including former presidents Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan, who were involved in the military coups of 1961, 1979, and 2024, graduated from KMA."Count how many military coups there were in Korea. They all happened in the Army," Lee said at the policy briefing. "Even though their leaders were KMA graduates, the academy has never taken any responsibility."The remarks came while discussing merging military academies for the Army, Navy and Air Force."The president asking the whole group of KMA graduates to take the responsibility is not the language of a constitutional state but a language of collective punishment," Kim wrote.Yoo Seong-min, a former four-term lawmaker of the conservative bloc, also criticized the president's remarks Wednesday."When he questioned whether the academy has ever taken responsibility (for the coups) to prevent another coup, the president confessed that the coup was the reason behind the proposed merger," Yoo wrote in a Facebook post.Yoo argued that abolishing the academy simply because coups were led by KMA graduates is "simple-minded," and said the president should first explain why merging the military academies would strengthen the armed forces before seeking the military and the public's support."By that logic, Seoul National University School of Law and Choongam High School, both of which the former president Yoon Suk Yeol graduated from, should be abolished too," Yoo said.He also referred to his career in the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly, and praised soldiers who had "a strong sense of duty, patriotism, and view of life and death."