Choi Yoon-hee, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responds to land mine explosions, "We must show North Korea our will not to sit idly by."

“North Korea apologizes for its hard-line response to the end”… Reflection on ‘2015 response to wooden box landmines’ at the National Assembly

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon = Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Choi Yoon-hee said regarding the landmine explosion that occurred in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the 13th, "We must respond with a dire determination."

At the 'North Korea's Landmine Provocation, 2015 and 2026' debate hosted by the People Power Research Group Policy 2830 at the National Assembly on this day, former Chairman Choi said this regarding the military's response to North Korea's wooden box land mine provocation in 2015, saying, "North Korea is absolutely not a group that can (communicate) rationally or rationally."

He recalled, "As soon as the wooden box landmine situation arose, I went out to investigate the site, and when North Korea made an artillery provocation according to the guidelines, I responded ten or ten times more on the spot. As I did so, the situation worsened out of control."

He added, "North Korea has about 70 submarines, and usually five submarines go out. However, as the situation worsened, in the final phase, 56 submarines went out," adding, "(At the time) I thought North Korea was prepared and prepared for war."

He continued, "Negotiations with North Korea were eventually concluded. We received an apology because we did not back down and took a hard-line response until the end," and emphasized, "The will to never sit idly by when such behavior occurs must be conveyed."

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Choi said, "Even in this situation, what the military must do cannot be changed regardless of the policy toward North Korea. If (the government) uses a pro-North Korea policy, the military must prepare to be stronger. That is backing up the policy with 'force.'"

He demanded that the government reveal its will to respond resolutely.

He added, "(In 2015), the strong will of the Commander-in-Chief was conveyed, so North Korea did not act carelessly and apologized," and added, "North Korea burned many people at the stake for National Security Chief Kim Kwan-jin. As a soldier, I am proud of this."

When Rep. Kang Sun-young, a former Army general, asked about his opinion on the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts to North Korea, Choi, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replied, "It is true that it is a means of showing that we will punish North Korea most effectively," and added, "That is because the North Korean system is not stable and is unstable."

Regarding the situation in which he was conducting working-level negotiations with North Korea as the head of the Inter-Korean Talks Headquarters at the Ministry of Unification at the time of North Korea's wooden box landmine provocation, Rep. Kim Ki-woong of the same party recalled, "North Korea confidently proposed this (dialogue), but we rejected it at the time. When the South said that it would not talk even if threatened with force and said, 'Bring it to the right level,' (inter-Korean negotiations) were held in a '2+2' format."

He said, "I have negotiated with North Korea more than 300 times over the past 30 years, and this is the first time I have encountered a situation where North Korea took a low stance as it did during the three-day no-night negotiations. The most important thing in leadership is for the command to express consistent resolve."