The National Assembly's National Defense Committee holds a national audit of the Naval Operations Command and other agencies at Gyeryongdae in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province, on Tuesday morning. [Yonhap]
The National Assembly's National Defense Committee holds a national audit of the Naval Operations Command and other agencies at Gyeryongdae in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province, on Tuesday morning. [Yonhap]

Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties united Tuesday in condemning a statement issued Monday by Kim Yo-jong, a senior official of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, in which she raised the prospect of resuming loudspeaker broadcasts against South Korea, calling her remarks "brazen."

Kim Byung-joo, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker and presidential special adviser on defense policy, said at the National Assembly Defense Committee's national audit of the Navy and Marine Corps at Gyeryongdae that South Korean soldiers had been seriously wounded by landmines planted south of the Military Demarcation Line and had demanded an apology. "Not only has North Korea failed to apologize, it is now threatening us," Kim said. "I condemn North Korea's brazen attitude."

Kim added that South Korea's military had responded firmly to North Korea's moves to treat the MDL as a national border. "North Korea is showing that it is feeling the pain of our resolute response," he said.

Fellow Democratic Party lawmaker Park Seon-won said Kim Yo-jong had acknowledged that the border situation on the Korean Peninsula was highly unstable, and argued that responsibility for the rising tensions along the MDL lay squarely with the North. "Where does that instability come from?" he asked.

Park also proposed that North Korea halt what he called unnecessary fortification work along the border and, if it did not want a clash, join South Korea in taking the first steps toward converting the current armistice regime into a peace regime.

People Power Party lawmaker Im Jong-deuk called the statement "brazen" and questioned whether Kim Yo-jong would have dared act this way had South Korea's military responded more decisively when the landmine explosion involving the 25th Infantry Division occurred. "I don't think she would have," he said.

Im also criticized what he described as an insufficient response, asking whether warning broadcasts and warning shots alone could truly be considered resolute. "A resolute response must be one that can actually change North Korea's behavior," he said.

In her statement Monday, Kim Yo-jong pushed back against South Korean warning shots fired in response to North Korean troops crossing the MDL, saying Pyongyang would "review the question of reinforcing tactical strike assets near the entire southern border and resuming loudspeaker broadcasts directed at South Korea."

Kim argued that South Korean warning broadcasts and warning shots in response to MDL incursions by North Korean troops — occurring during Pyongyang's "border fortification" work — threatened the safety of those soldiers, and sought to place responsibility for the escalating situation on Seoul.

Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Kim Gyeong-ryul, appearing before the audit, said in response to questions about Kim Yo-jong's statement that the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea was "a maritime boundary line that Navy personnel are defending with their blood," and that if North Korea violated the NLL, South Korea's military would "immediately and powerfully repel them in accordance with established procedures."


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