People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won. [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won. [Yonhap]

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won criticized the government's response to North Korea on Saturday after a North Korean land mine was discovered near a beach on Ganghwado, asking, "Which country's president is Lee Jae Myung, exactly?"

Na made the remarks in a Facebook post Saturday, writing that the Lee Jae Myung administration "cannot say a single word about North Korean mines, whether they drifted ashore or were deliberately planted."

"A lethal weapon capable of killing people has turned up in the middle of a South Korean beach — the kind of place where families spread out mats on weekends and children play in the sand," Na wrote. "Had it not been found by a maintenance worker, and had a curious young child discovered it first, we would have been looking at a catastrophe too horrible to imagine."

Na then turned to President Lee directly. "The president says nothing. Not a single word," she wrote. She added that just 20 days earlier, a reconnaissance battalion commander and soldiers had lost their feet to North Korean mines planted in the Demilitarized Zone, yet the administration had been pressing ahead with plans to provide 9.3 billion won ($6.94 million) worth of medical aid to the North — only to be met with mockery and contempt in return.

"The public is not just anxious — they are furious," Na wrote. "People are living with the fear that their families could step on a mine at the beach, yet from the president there is no warning, no plan."

Na urged President Lee to take four steps: issue a strong condemnation of North Korea's provocation and apologize for the military's failure of alert readiness; lodge a formal protest with Pyongyang and demand guarantees against a recurrence; conduct mine-sweeping operations and put safety measures in place along all border coastal areas; and raise the armistice violation through the United Nations Command.

"A government that cannot protect the lives and safety of its people, and cannot even muster outrage in the face of enemy provocation, has no reason to exist," Na said.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com