The key to this decision to award honors is that the classification of the deceased's deaths was belatedly corrected from 'death in the line of duty' to 'combatant'. Despite the fact that Lieutenant Colonel Kim Orang and Sergeant Jeong Seon-yeop died while fighting the rebels, their achievements were not fully recognized for a long time and they were placed in an institutional blind spot. In 2022, through the recommendation of a retrial by the Military Accident Investigation Committee and the Ministry of National Defense's Military Casualty Review Committee, it was finally clearly established that their deaths were an 'engagement with the enemy' or an 'act to prevent rebellion.' This public reevaluation is very meaningful in that the state formalized the sacrifice of those who resisted the forces that violated the constitutional order as a noble act of protecting democracy.

Lieutenant Colonel Kim Orang’s life became widely known to the public through the movie ‘Spring in Seoul,’ but the actual pain and sacrifice he experienced was much more terrible than the movie’s narrative. As the chief of staff assisting General Jeong Byeong-ju, the commander of the Special Forces Command at the time, he locked the door to the commander's office and resisted to the end even in the face of armed threats from rebels, and was shot six times and oxidized. His body suffered the indignity of being buried in secret, and his bereaved family also had to endure the tragedy of dementia, blindness, and early death. He took the first step toward regaining his honor by receiving the National Defense Service Medal. The fact that he has now finally received the Military Meritorious Service Medal, the highest level of honor awarded to combat meritorious soldiers, means that the clock of history, which had been stopped for 45 long years, has begun to run normally again.

The case of Sergeant Jeong Seon-yeop also resonates deeply with us. He, who was working as a sentry in an underground bunker under the Ministry of Defense at the time, resolutely refused the rebels' request to disarm with the spirit of a soldier, saying, “I cannot hand over my firearm without instructions from above.” His sacrifice of defending his duties until the end and falling to the rebels' bullets shows how noble the responsibility a soldier must have, regardless of rank. His achievements, which had been forgotten without any special awards, were finally returned to national memory through this posthumous award of the Military Merit Medal. This is evaluated as an example of the country putting into practice its promise to remember and honor those who followed constitutional values ​​rather than organizational orders during a crisis.

The process by which the government canceled the existing National Defense Service Medal and awarded the Military Meritorious Service Medal in accordance with the principle of ‘no multiple awards of the same merit’ under the Awards and Awards Act during this ceremony was a process of thorough public verification that went beyond administrative procedures. This is a result that reflects the Ministry of National Defense's will to provide the deceased with the courtesy that best matches the essence of his or her achievements, regardless of the high or low level of discipline. The Military Merit Medal, given to combat veterans, is the highest honor given to those who sacrificed their lives to protect national security and democracy. Now, the government plans to promote a medal handing over ceremony through close consultation with relevant organizations and bereaved families. This goes beyond a simple ceremony and presents the correct answer to how our society should remember and organize the December 12 incident.