Opposition: 'How can the government decide if you do nothing?'
Ruling party: 'Act with confidence'
Opposition lawmakers sharply criticized South Korea's Permanent Mission to the United Nations during a National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee national audit held Tuesday (local time) at the mission in New York, saying the mission had responded inadequately to North Korea's landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone.
People Power Party lawmaker Kim Geon asked Ambassador Cha Ji-hoon whether the issue would be taken up at the UN Security Council, calling it "a serious matter tied to the fortification of the inter-Korean border area and the undermining of the Korean War armistice."
Cha said "no decision has been made" on how to proceed, adding that "the government has not yet reached a strategic determination."
Cha also said he had not consulted with US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz on the matter, and it emerged that he had held no related consultations with other Security Council members either.
Kim pressed the ambassador, saying he should be meeting with other ambassadors to assess whether the issue could be raised at the Security Council and reporting the results back to headquarters. "How can the government make a judgment if you just sit still?" Kim said.
Cha said in response that it had been meaningful to raise the North Korean landmine explosion before the international community and call for an apology at the UN General Assembly's First Committee on Thursday.
Kim urged the ambassador to be more proactive, saying the UN was the right venue for delivering diplomatic messages when North Korea provoked in the DMZ, and that speaking at the First Committee was "a warm-up for taking the issue to the Security Council."
People Power Party lawmaker Ko Dong-jin said the UN-level response to North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations had been insufficient since Cha took office.
Ko noted that North Korea had continued missile provocations even during the period when South Korea served as a non-permanent member and president of the Security Council after Cha assumed his post in September last year. "Is it that you tried but got no results, or that you didn't try at all?" Ko asked.
Cha replied that condemnations of North Korean provocations had continued at the Security Council or the General Assembly "whenever there was an occasion to do so."
Cha's background also came under scrutiny. Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon noted that Cha had previously served as a defense attorney for President Lee Jae Myung and asked whether "an amateur had been given a post that demands a consummate professional."
Han also pressed Cha on whether his personal ties to the president had influenced his appointment. Cha defended himself, saying, "Having come here, I find there are many ambassadors who are not career diplomats."
The audit also touched on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's recent disclosure at the UN General Assembly that two captured North Korean soldiers had been repatriated to South Korea.
Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee Chairman Song Seok-jun asked whether Cha had met with Ukrainian counterparts at the UN. Cha said he was "in occasional contact" with Ukraine but had not met with them in connection with Zelensky's remarks.
Cha added that Ukraine-related matters were being handled "at the bilateral level by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters," and that any multilateral engagement at the UN would require coordination with headquarters first.
In contrast to the opposition's criticism, ruling party lawmakers encouraged Cha to act with greater confidence.
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Maeng Seong-gyu asked about the ambassador's strategy for achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, acknowledging that Cha would find it difficult to act unilaterally, and said the ambassador should work through the South Korean ambassador to the United States and the Foreign Ministry to convey Seoul's position. "Please act with confidence so that those who are concerned — including the opposition — have no cause to raise objections," Maeng said.
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