"As the Country Marks a Somber Armed Forces Day"... People Power Party Says the Delusion of "Fake Peace" Must Be Abandoned

[Financial News] On the first, Armed Forces Day, opposition parties continued to trade blame over a North Korean landmine explosion in the southern area of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) on the Western Front.
The People Power Party said, "We are observing Armed Forces Day with a sense of devastation," and held the government responsible, saying, "It weakened national security vigilance and readiness while talking about lifting sanctions against North Korea and becoming gripped by a delusion of 'fake peace' rooted in submission to North Korea." It also claimed that while North Korea had crossed the line, the Lee Jae Myung government and the Democratic Party of Korea had been unable to draw one.
It said the joint on-site investigation was conducted only after the Chuseok holiday and the president's speech at the United Nations had both passed, six days after the incident. The Ministry of National Defense, it added, hid behind its statement that it was considering resuming loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea. The Ministry of Unification (MOU) also avoided giving a direct answer on whether aid to North Korea would be reconsidered. The ministry had been reviewing medical equipment assistance to North Korea worth 9.3 billion won.
The People Power Party assessed, "They said the response should come only after determining whether the incident was intentional, and they derailed the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea's resolution condemning North Korea in opposition to the demand that it include the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts and the suspension of aid to North Korea. They condemned it in words but effectively gave it a pass through their actions."
It also lambasted the Democratic Party of Korea for being busy blaming the previous administration while Kim Yo Jong of North Korea mocked the incident as a 'self-staged act.'
It criticized the Lee Jae Myung government for saying it would reduce guards stationed at Guard Posts (GOP) to one-quarter and for allowing 'empty-gun guard duty' along the front line, with live rounds removed from machine guns. It also pointed out that when the United States unilaterally cut US-South Korea joint exercises in half, President Lee Jae Myung said, "I pay tribute to that decision."
By contrast, it said that during the Park Geun-hye administration's response to the wooden-box landmine provocation in 2015, the government promptly announced that North Korea was responsible and turned the loudspeakers back on for the first time in 11 years. North Korea threatened 'all-out war,' but ultimately sent senior officials to express regret.
The People Power Party asked, "Is the reason this government and the Democratic Party of Korea become so meek only in front of Pyongyang really that Pyongyang has the president's 'weakness' in its grasp?"
The People Power Party noted that last year the Supreme Court of Korea upheld a seven-year-and-eight-month prison sentence for Lee Hwa-young, former vice governor of Gyeonggi Province for peace, on charges of involvement in the Ssangbangwool illegal remittances to North Korea case. It added that the indictment's allegation that $3 million of the $8 million sent to North Korea was intended to cover the visit to North Korea by Lee Jae Myung, who was then governor of Gyeonggi Province, had also been recognized.
It further claimed, "The testimony of those directly involved in the incident did not change even at the parliamentary investigation hearing held this spring," and, "North Korea is both the party that received that money and the party that knows the full story best."

[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter