hankyoreh

Military personnel can be seen at a South Korean military facility near the border with North Korea that once was used for loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts on June 9, 2024. Whether loudspeakers had been reinstalled could not be verified. (Kim Bong-gyu/The Hankyoreh)

Regarding the vicious cycle of South and North Korea launching balloons at each other while Seoul resumes its loudspeaker broadcasts, the Democratic Party called on Monday for a “stop to this childish game of chicken in which everybody loses, North and South.” 

During a meeting of the party’s senior leadership at the National Assembly on Monday, Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung said, “After observing the series of responses from both the North and South, I can’t help but wonder if the authorities on both sides care about the safety of their citizens or about the stability of an inter-Korean community.” 

“If you want to play childish games, fine, but it looks like we’re going to provoke more episodes of shelling or gunfire from North Korea. If that happens, the South is sure to respond with 10 times the firepower, which will provoke an equal or greater response from the North,” Lee said.

“It is the responsibility of the government to minimize the chances of a military clash between the two Koreas,” Lee declared. 

At the same meeting, Democratic Party Supreme Council member Ko Min-jung said, “With the Yoon Suk-yeol administration adopting the forceful move of [resuming] loudspeaker broadcasts to North Korea in response to the trash balloons, military tensions between South and North have reached a hair-trigger situation.”

“President Yoon’s trademark ‘anger’ should not be carried over into Korean Peninsula issues,” she urged.

In an interview with BBS radio, fellow Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hyun said, “The important thing right now is either to create a resolution in the National Assembly to stop [provocations against North Korea] or for politicians to make efforts to find some third solution.”

“This is not an issue where we should be matching force with force,” she advised.

In contrast, the People Power Party (PPP) urged the administration to show a forceful response while criticizing the opposition for “politicizing” the situation.

Party spokesperson Ho Jun-seok said, “Responsibility for ratcheting up inter-Korean tensions lies fully with North Korea.”

“Yet the Democratic Party is focusing only on heaping criticisms on the administration’s measures and calling them an ‘attempt to turn [the administration’s current crisis] around,’” he lamented.

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter; Son Hyun-soo, staff reporter

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