'Government has taken a passive, defensive posture'

Military cites high likelihood of North Korean mine provocation

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon stages a one-person protest in front of the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, calling for an immediate investigation into a suspected landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone, on Thursday. [Yonhap]
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon stages a one-person protest in front of the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, calling for an immediate investigation into a suspected landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone, on Thursday. [Yonhap]

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon on Wednesday criticized the government's handling of a landmine explosion in the western DMZ and said President Lee Jae Myung must take a firmer stance toward North Korea. Han said the government's passive response had emboldened Pyongyang's brazen posture, particularly after North Korea claimed the incident was a staged provocation by the South.

In a Facebook post, Han said the Lee administration had adopted "a passive and defensive attitude — as if hoping the attack would turn out not to be a North Korean landmine strike, or at least that it would not be proven to be one" from the moment of the Sept. 21 explosion. "Until Kim Yo-jong's shameless statement came out, President Lee Jae Myung could not say a single word to North Korea," he said.

Han said that posture had "created an environment in which the North Korean regime could act as if it had caught President Lee Jae Myung at a weak point and respond with brazen impudence." He added: "South Korea was attacked. It is South Korea and our people who were attacked."

"The government must respond with confidence and resolve," Han said. "If it does not do so now, the attacks will be repeated and we will be forced to submit."

In a separate post, Han challenged the Lee administration's broader North Korea policy. He said he had worried since the administration took office in 2025 that President Lee's ties to the Kim Jong-un regime — which he alleged had sent funds to Lee — gave Pyongyang leverage that would push the administration toward a submissive policy against the national interest. "Those concerns are now becoming reality, as seen in the response to the North Korean landmine attack and the handling of North Korean prisoner-of-war issues," Han said.

Military authorities said Tuesday that the landmine responsible for the explosion was most likely of North Korean origin. Defense Minister Kang Shin-cheol told a plenary session of the National Assembly's Defense Committee that a violation of the armistice agreement was "clear," adding that North Korea's fortification of the border "can certainly be called a provocation in the broader sense."

North Korea, meanwhile, insisted the incident was a fabrication by the South. In a statement dated Tuesday and released Wednesday by KCNA, Korean Workers' Party Vice Director Kim Yo-jong said the incident was "an obvious staged provocation that closely resembles the 'wooden box mine incident' that caused an uproar more than a decade ago, both in its timing and method."


mp1256@heraldcorp.com