Dong-Hoon Han "The Lee government crushed the announcement... Now it's time to take corresponding strong measures."

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon = The People Power Party launched an onslaught on the 5th, calling it a "plant army" when the military announced on the 5th that the cause of the landmine explosion that occurred south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the Western Front last month was a North Korean landmine and proposed "removal operation" as the first response.

Chief Spokesperson Park Seong-hoon criticized in a commentary that day, saying, "Even though the subject of the serious military provocation that injured three of our soldiers was revealed, the response provided by the military authorities is beyond devastation and is at the level of a declaration of abandonment of security sovereignty."

Senior Spokesperson Park pointed out, "The military authorities urged North Korea to 'immediately remove the land mines south of the MDL' and then announced, 'If North Korea does not clear them, we will continue the mine removal operation ourselves.'" He added, "What kind of absurdity is this? They broke into someone else's house's yard and buried explosives, injuring a person, and then they ask the criminal to 'come back and clean it up,' and if they don't remove it, the victim will risk his life to clean it up for them."

He said, "Because of President Lee Jae-myung's 'subservient belief in North Korea,' the country has become an incompetent 'vegetable army' that cannot even take proper military countermeasures even when its soldiers shed blood due to enemy provocations," and urged, "We must immediately prepare practical and strong corresponding measures."

Spokesperson Ham In-kyung also commented, saying, "How contemptuous must North Korea be toward the Republic of Korea and our military when they see this response to a clear military provocation and violation of the armistice agreement?" and condemned, "It only gives the wrong signal that there is no reward for provocation."

Representative Kwon Young-se, who served as the Minister of Unification for five terms, said on Facebook, "Just the day before, in a congratulatory speech commemorating the October 4th Declaration, President Lee borrowed the words of President Roh Moo-hyun and said, 'The only thing that can be achieved through reciprocity is a repetition of crisis and a confrontational structure,'" and pointed out, "Giving up reciprocity to an opponent who does not even adhere to the armistice agreement is appeasement and submission, not peace."

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, who has raised suspicions about the government's intentional delay in responding to land mines, also wrote on Facebook, "A North Korean land mine attack occurred on September 21, and the Lee Jae-myung administration continued to take a strange attitude, such as saying that it would take the Chuseok holiday off to investigate, out of concern for North Korea. Then, as the month changed, it officially acknowledged and announced that it was a North Korean land mine attack today, October 5."

Representative Han emphasized, “It is with a heavy heart that if it were not for the passionate interest and patriotism of the people who even forgot the Chuseok holiday, the Lee Jae-myung administration would not have acknowledged it to this extent and tried to crush it,” adding, “Now it is time to take strong corresponding measures.”