Ahn Cheol-soo 'Amidst the Joint Chiefs of Staff explosive briefing, President Lee Jae-myung rebutted Kim Eo-jun on SNS'

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon and Jo-daun = The People Power Party raised the level of its rental offensive on the 29th following the military's announcement that the cause of the explosion in the South's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was very likely a North Korean land mine.

The People Power Party said that the government was responding slowly and put pressure on the recently appointed Minister of National Defense Kang Shin-cheol to be dismissed, while also mentioning the need for an intensive response, such as resuming loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea.

In a Facebook post on this day, CEO Jang Dong-hyuk said, "Eight months ago, President Lee Jae-myung said to Cambodia, 'If you touch a Korean, you will be disgraced,' and four months ago, when Israel detained a Korean activist, he said, 'Consider arresting Prime Minister Netanyahu.'" He fiercely criticized President Lee Jae-myung, saying, "President Lee Jae-myung, who has been shouting loudly in all directions, has been consistently silent on North Korea's land mine provocation. Is Kim Jong-un more scary than the people?"

Rep. Yoo Yong-won, a member of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee, also mentioned the fact that the Joint Chiefs of Staff found traces of landmines laid by the North Korean military in September of last year at the floor countermeasures meeting, and said, "In the end, the Lee Jae-myung government and the military's complacent 'water response' made North Korea look down on us and allowed metallurgy to push down south like the so-called salami tactic, which ultimately led to an accident in which our soldiers were seriously injured."

Rep. Kim Dae-sik, the opposition secretary of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, also asked at the meeting, "It was claimed that the investigation of the accident that occurred on the 21st was scheduled for the 29th but changed to the 27th. Wasn't the decision made in consideration of the president's keynote speech at the UN General Assembly immediately after the accident?"

He emphasized, "If the North Korean military's planting of mines south of the Military Demarcation Line and violation of the armistice agreement are confirmed, we must demand an apology from North Korea and prevent recurrence, and work together with the United Nations Command to firmly hold them accountable."

Chief Spokesperson Park Chung-kwon, a former North Korean defector, criticized in a commentary, "Minister Kang Shin-cheol, who is busy avoiding responsibility for the situation amidst the collapsed security stance and submissive policy toward North Korea, is not even remotely qualified to be the head of national defense," adding, "He should immediately assume command responsibility and voluntarily resign, as well as be dismissed."

Five-term lawmaker Kwon Young-se, who served as Minister of Unification in the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, argued on Facebook, "If it is confirmed to be a North Korean landmine, our corresponding measures should at least go beyond resuming loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea."

Policy Committee Chairman Lim I-ja said on Facebook, "Our soldiers were carrying out normal operations on our soil and shed blood due to land mines buried by the North Korean military. It is a serious military provocation and a direct violation of national security." He added, "North Korea must be held accountable, and suspicions of a cover-up must be revealed through a government investigation."

Han Ki-ho, a four-term lawmaker and former Army lieutenant general, also wrote on Facebook, "The government and military have wasted golden time by delaying their response from the beginning. Circumstances have even been revealed in which they attempted to minimize and conceal the incident by deleting the phrase 'presumed North Korean landmines' from the initial report." He added, "It is a priority to first reveal the truth about how the words 'North Korean landmines' were deleted from the initial report and what reports and instructions were exchanged between the Blue House and military leadership while the investigation was delayed."

Ahn Cheol-soo, a four-term member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, also posted on Facebook, "Yesterday, around 7:30 p.m., the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced a briefing on the DMZ explosion, and at 8:30 p.m., announced that the cause was a North Korean mine. However, at 8:12 p.m., President Lee posted a post on “It’s devastating to imagine the president of the Republic of Korea frantically tapping away at his smartphone keyboard,” he criticized.