Coordination with the UN begins a month after the “North Korean landmine” incident—why the belated U-turn to a hard-line response?

[Financial News] The Foreign Ministry has belatedly begun taking hard-line steps to press North Korea for an apology through the international community over the explosion of a North Korean landmine south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). A month has passed since the North Korean military landmine blast occurred on the 21st of last month.
According to South Korea’s Permanent Mission to the UN, on the 22nd (local time), South Korea’s ambassador to the UN, Cha Ji-hoon, sent a roughly two-page letter on the “North Korean landmine blast in the DMZ” to Greece’s ambassador to the UN, whose country holds the Security Council presidency, and began coordinating with the international community.
The Foreign Ministry is understood to have emphasized in a letter to the president of the UN Security Council that the North Korean military’s landmine constitutes a violation of the Armistice Agreement. The letter also demanded an apology and responsible action from North Korea, and called on it to engage in dialogue to prevent rising tensions and restore trust.
With the Security Council president having approved circulation of the letter, it is expected to be circulated to Council members sometime that day. The letter sent by the government will be adopted as an official Security Council document and posted on the Council’s website within days.
When a North Korean wooden-box landmine exploded on August 4, 2015, under the Park Geun-hye administration, South Korea sent a letter in the name of its ambassador to the UN to the president of the UN Security Council about 15 days later, condemning North Korea’s violation of the Armistice Agreement and its provocation. North Korea later said through the “August 25 Agreement (high-level talks),” “We express regret that South Korean soldiers were injured in a landmine blast in the southern part of the Demilitarized Zone.”
However, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun has recently taken a passive stance, saying that the option of not sending a letter to the president of the UN Security Council condemning the North Korean landmine incident was also under consideration.
There is also an assessment that the Foreign Ministry’s strong response was delayed after Cho and Unification Minister Chung Dong-young clashed over hard-line measures toward North Korea.
As North Korea continued to mock and hurl insults at President Lee Jae Myung and Cheong Wa Dae, the Foreign Ministry became the first among the major ministries to shift to a strong, proactive response. The previous day, Kim Yo Jong, head of the General Affairs Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, crossed the line by repeatedly directing abusive remarks such as “imbecile,” “scared dog” and “shameless person” at Cheong Wa Dae and others.
Moreover, concerns that North Korea may even be preparing weapons systems that could be nuclear-armed near the armistice line have made active countermeasures by the South Korean military necessary.

[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter