Ruling-party lawmaker Kim Byung-joo on Brunson’s “South Fence Line” remark: “Apologize for violating territorial sovereignty”

[Financial News] Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said that “the Republic of Korea begins at the southern fence line,” drawing a series of objections from the ruling camp that the remark infringed on territorial sovereignty. Kim Byung-joo, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker serving as the president’s special adviser on defense policy, publicly demanded that Brunson retract the remark and apologize. Jin Sung-joon, chair of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee and a fellow party member, also criticized it as a view that runs counter to the Constitution. The Democratic Party of Korea also stood by its position that it would swiftly meet the conditions and proceed with the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON), despite Brunson’s assertion at the same event that the “conditions had changed” for the transfer.
According to political circles on the 18th, Kim posted Brunson’s remark on his social media account the previous day and described it as “a statement that crossed the line by violating the territorial sovereignty of the Republic of Korea.” He called on Brunson to “immediately retract the remark infringing on sovereignty and apologize to the people of the Republic of Korea.”
Committee Chair Jin also raised the issue on social media that day. Citing the Constitution’s territorial clause, he wrote that the remark “runs counter to our Constitution, which defines the territory of the Republic of Korea as the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands,” adding that “the perception of the United Nations Command commander, who denies the Republic of Korea’s territorial sovereignty, must be corrected.”
The controversy began with Brunson’s remarks at a seminar in Washington, D.C. In addition to serving as commander of U.S. Forces Korea, he also leads the United Nations Command (UNC) and the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command. He was reported to have said at an event organized by the U.S. think tank Gold Institute for International Strategy on the 14th (local time), “From the perspective of the United Nations Command, the Republic of Korea begins at the southern fence line.”
Kim argued in response by outlining the scope of the UNC’s authority under the Armistice Agreement. He pointed out that “the authority granted to the UNC under the Armistice Agreement is limited to authorizing access to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and civil administration,” and that “it has no authority whatsoever to determine the territorial sovereignty of the sovereign Republic of Korea.” He went on to state emphatically, “No foreign power may exercise jurisdiction over the territory of the Republic of Korea; it is our land, subject to the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea.”

[email protected] Jeong Gyeong-su Reporter