Na Kyung-won, a lawmaker of the People Power Party, said South Korea should immediately conduct military drills aimed at removing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, following a land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone.
"Corresponding measures cannot be mere lip service," Na said at a news conference at the National Assembly on the 30th. "We must fully resume loudspeaker broadcasts and leaflet drops toward the North, and immediately conduct drills targeting Kim Jong Un, which the North Korean leadership fears most."
South Korea and the United States conducted special operations drills premised on removing the North Korean leadership starting around 2016, when the North's nuclear and missile threats intensified. Na appeared to be referring to those exercises, which are believed to have been scaled back or shifted out of public view after inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea talks began in 2018.
Na added that South Korea should "mobilize every available means to punish North Korea, including the highest level of international financial sanctions to dry up Kim Jong Un's governing funds, tracking and seizing assets hidden overseas, and filing direct damage claims against North Korean authorities."
Turning to President Lee Jae-myung, she called on him to "formally retract his remarks in his U.N. address and kneel in apology before the soldiers who were wounded for life by the mine explosion and before the public."
Na also said she would file a resolution jointly with lawmakers across the broader conservative bloc, calling for an investigation into allegations that the Lee administration downplayed and concealed the DMZ mine incident, presumed to involve North Korean mines, and urging proper recognition and support for the wounded soldiers. She said the resolution drew participation from about 70 People Power Party lawmakers, including party leader Jang Dong-hyuk, as well as Lee Jun-seok and Lee Joo-young of the Reform Party and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon.
The resolution calls for a strict ban on the destruction of evidence and records related to the incident, full submission of materials tied to allegations that the phrase "presumed North Korean mines" was deleted, an emergency joint hearing by the foreign affairs, defense and intelligence committees along with a parliamentary investigation, the formation of an objective fact-finding team including experts recommended by opposition parties, and the highest level of recognition befitting state merit for the wounded soldiers, including classification of their injuries as combat-related.
"We opened the back door to a thief, and our president took the lead in dismissing it as a conspiracy theory and making excuses, so now Kim Yo Jong has pushed all the way into our living room," Na said. "Why does President Lee shrink so much whenever he stands before North Korea?"
Park Sung-joon, chief spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized Na's remarks in comments to reporters, calling them "very Na Kyung-won" and asking, "Who would respond to talk like that?"
