Party spokesperson Park Sung-hoon issues statement criticizing military's Monday announcement

Yang Jin-hyeok, operations chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefs reporters at South Korea's Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on Monday on the final findings of the joint field investigation task force into the DMZ land mine explosion. [Yonhap]
Yang Jin-hyeok, operations chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefs reporters at South Korea's Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on Monday on the final findings of the joint field investigation task force into the DMZ land mine explosion. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party on Monday sharply criticized the military for launching a mine-removal operation as its first response after concluding that North Korea was responsible for a land mine explosion south of the MDL in the western front's demilitarized zone last month, calling the armed forces a "vegetable army."

Chief Spokesperson Park Sung-hoon said in a statement that day that "even though the perpetrator of a serious military provocation that left three of our service members injured has been identified, the military authorities' response goes beyond being dismal — it amounts to a declaration of surrender of security sovereignty."

Park said the military had urged North Korea to "immediately remove the mines it planted south of the MDL," then announced it would "continue mine-removal operations itself if North Korea does not clear them." "What kind of absurd nonsense is this?" he said. "Someone broke into your backyard, buried explosives and injured people — and your response is to ask the perpetrator to come back and clean it up, and if they don't, the victim will risk their own life to do it instead."

He said the military had become "an incompetent 'vegetable army' that cannot even take proper corresponding military measures when soldiers bleed from enemy provocations, all because of President Lee Jae-myung's conviction of submission toward North Korea," and called on the government to "immediately devise substantive and strong countermeasures."

Spokesperson Ham In-gyeong also issued a statement, saying, "Seeing this kind of response to a clear military provocation and armistice violation, how contemptible must North Korea think South Korea and our military are?" She added that the response "only sends the wrong signal that there is no price to pay for provocation."


siuu@heraldcorp.com