The People Power Party is tightening its offensive against the government after the Chuseok holiday, focusing on national security and farmland issues. Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk plans to make on-site visits himself this week to press for a shift in the administration's policy direction.
Jang will visit a military unit on Baengnyeong Island on the 29th, two days before Armed Forces Day, to review defense readiness, the party said on the 27th. On the 30th, he will travel to the Chungcheong region to hear from farmers about the government's comprehensive farmland survey.
The visits are intended to reconfirm on the ground the public sentiment the party gathered during the Chuseok holiday and to add force to its offensive against the government. The party aims to raise the pressure to coincide with President Lee Jae-myung's return from his trip to the United States and Mexico.
On the 28th, the day before the Baengnyeong Island visit, Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul will call on Jang to brief him on the government's response to the landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone and the progress of the investigation. Jang is also expected to press him over the party's failed attempt to visit the site of the incident.
At a press meeting on the final day of the holiday, Jang also focused on the DMZ landmine explosion and the farmland survey. He described the delay in the investigation into the explosion as "guarding Kim Jong-un's feelings," arguing that "if the president deliberately delayed the on-site investigation, it is a clear act of benefiting the enemy and constitutes the crime of treason involving foreign powers."
On the farmland survey, he said it amounted to "burning down the house to kill a bedbug." He argued that, as with the government's real estate policy, the administration is imposing an excessive burden on all farmers in the name of curbing speculative demand from a few. "Is it this administration's agricultural policy to destroy farmers' lives in order to catch a handful of speculators?" Jang said. "The public's patience has already reached its limit."
A decision on whether to hold street rallies is expected to take shape during the week. The party plans to determine the specific schedule and format of any rallies after watching how the government responds to public sentiment expressed over the holiday.
