PPP says Lee trampled on Cheonan families' plea to demand apology from North

[Financial News] The People Power Party (PPP) urged President Lee Jae Myung to "clearly and firmly demand, as President of the Republic of Korea, an apology from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan."
Park Sung-hoon, the party's chief spokesperson, referred in a commentary on the 28th to a media report that President Lee, when asked the previous day by a bereaved family member of the ROKS Cheonan incident to "demand an apology from the North," replied, "Do you think the North will apologize just because we tell them to?" Park stated, "President Lee once again remained silent in the face of the DPRK's atrocity of attacking the ROKS Cheonan."
Park argued, "That one flippant remark by President Lee—'Do you think the North will apologize just because we tell them to?'—trampled on the sacrifice of the 46 fallen sailors and the cries of their families," adding, "The President has once again driven a dagger into the hearts of the Cheonan bereaved families."
He went on to ask, "Is it really so difficult to say just one sentence: 'I will keep demanding an apology to the end'?" and added, "Are the sacrifices of the service members who fell defending the West Sea nothing more than an inconvenient past for the President?"
He continued, "If you want to talk about security, you must at least be able to call the enemy's provocation a provocation," and asserted, "A President who cannot even demand an apology from the DPRK ultimately holds a security stance of submission."
Jang Dong-hyeok, the party leader, also cited the related report in a Facebook post the same day and sneered, "I have just one thing to say to President Lee: do you think the North will engage in dialogue just because you tell them to?"
Parliamentary leader Song Eon-seok likewise wrote on Facebook, "Is that something a President should say to families who lost their loved ones 16 years ago and have lived ever since in tears of blood?" He condemned, "By telling the bereaved families, 'Do you think they will apologize just because we tell them to?', President Lee humiliated them and in doing so denied the very meaning of the state's existence."

welcome@fnnews.com Jang Yu-ha Reporter