Ruling and Opposition United Over 'North Korea Crisis', Joint Foreign and Security Meeting Scheduled for Tomorrow

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hye-min] Amid escalating security crises due to North Korea's successive provocations, the ruling and opposition parties will hold a 'Joint Foreign and Security Meeting' to discuss responses. The meeting was arranged after the United Future Party proposed it and the Democratic Party accepted.

The United Future Party's Special Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security announced after the meeting on the 23rd, "It seems the meeting will be held tomorrow." The committee stated, "In the unprecedented foreign and security crisis, we have consistently maintained a stance of bipartisan response and proposed a joint meeting to the ruling party last week," adding, "Special Committee Chair Park Jin is coordinating the schedule with Democratic Party lawmaker Song Young-gil (Chair of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee)."

In response, Chair Park explained, "In principle, the parliamentary standing committees are not functioning, while on the other hand, the country is facing a serious security situation," and said, "I proposed that we put our heads together on a bipartisan level, and the ruling party responded positively, so we decided to meet tomorrow." However, regarding the possibility of using this as leverage to return to the standing committee, he drew a line, saying, "The ruling party unilaterally elected the standing committee chair and, for the first time in constitutional history, forcibly assigned opposition lawmakers. That is unacceptable."

The special committee is expected to urge a tough response, including the adoption of a North Korea human rights resolution and the leaflet campaigns against North Korea.

After the meeting, the special committee stated, "South Korea, which should take the lead more than anyone else in adopting the North Korea human rights resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, has been excluded from the joint sponsors for two consecutive years. We cannot understand why such caution is being exercised," adding, "President Moon Jae-in, who mentioned the first year of human rights investigations, should not distort the concept by ignoring the human rights of North Korean residents as 'fake human rights.'"

Regarding the leaflet campaigns by North Korean defector organizations, the committee criticized, citing Si Paulson, Director of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, on 'freedom of expression,' saying, "Government and ruling party-affiliated local government heads are trying to block only our civil organizations' leaflet campaigns against North Korea without any legal basis." They also urged, "There are signs that North Korea has reinstalled loudspeaker broadcasting facilities for propaganda toward the South within the Demilitarized Zone. Our military should actively consider resuming psychological warfare through loudspeaker broadcasts in response."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.