People Power Party: Delaying Mine Explosion Probe Would Constitute Grounds for Impeachment
People Power Party (PPP) leader Jang Dong-hyuk attacked President Lee Jae-myung at a press conference at the National Assembly on the 27th, saying that if the Lee government deliberately delays the investigation into the suspected landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ, a buffer zone where no troops from either Korea are stationed), it would constitute grounds for impeachment.
The PPP's offensive also focused on remarks by Democratic Party Rep. Kim Byung-ju. Kim, a retired four-star general who serves as the ruling party's secretary-general on the National Assembly Defense Committee, dismissed at a press conference the previous day the opposition's concerns that evidence could be lost if it rains, calling them "superstition, not science." In response, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun wrote on Facebook, "How can concerns that scene evidence could be damaged or lost due to rain be superstition?" Yoon urged that the reason no on-site investigation took place immediately after the accident, the coordination process between the UN Command and South Korean forces, and whether evidence was properly preserved in the process be disclosed with objective materials.
Rep. Sung Il-jong, a former chairman of the Defense Committee in the first half of the Assembly, also criticized on social media, saying, "Is he really a general who has served in the field? I have never seen a general who disdains scene evidence," calling it incomprehensible. Rep. Na Kyung-won said, "They kept trampling over and glossing over the landmine explosion tragedy, and only now that public anger has turned ugly are they backpedaling and putting on a show." She argued that a joint hearing on foreign affairs and security, along with joint hearings of the foreign affairs, unification, defense, and intelligence committees, should be held immediately, and that they should move to a government investigation based on the results.
Independent Rep. Han Dong-hoon wrote on Facebook, "If the UN Command refuses to investigate immediately, deliberately stalls for time, lets evidence be washed away by the forecast heavy rain, and then says 'it's unclear whether it was a North Korean landmine,' the Lee Jae-myung administration is finished. And it should be." Han has been holding a one-person protest in front of the Defense Ministry building in Yongsan since the 24th, holding a sign calling for an immediate investigation; PPP Reps. Park Jeong-ha, Yoo Yong-won, and Han Ji-a joined his protest the previous day.
Democratic Party spokesperson Cho Kye-won said on the 27th that the military and the UN Command had jointly secured a mobility route for an on-site investigation and inspected the operational environment. Democratic Party members of the Defense Committee plan to visit the DMZ area under the jurisdiction of the Army's 25th Division, where the accident occurred, to inspect the site on the 28th.
