Ruling and Opposition Parties Clash Over Defection of Wooden Boat Crew: "Precise Operation" VS "Failure"

Verbal Dispute Over the Need to Suspend the Effect of the September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement

At the comprehensive audit of the National Defense Committee held at the National Assembly on the 27th, a partisan dispute arose over the appropriateness of the military’s surveillance and alert operations related to the defection incident involving a small North Korean boat. The ruling party praised the military for conducting accurate operations in a timely manner, while the opposition criticized it as a "clear operational failure."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Seong Il-jong, a member of the People Power Party, highlighted that the military’s detection, identification, and tracking surveillance of the wooden boat on the day of the incident were carried out promptly, saying, "The public saw the military conducting operations properly and on time for the first time in a while."

However, Song Ok-ju of the Democratic Party pointed out, "The military failed to respond properly until the civilian boat reported to the Coast Guard," calling it a "clear failure of alert operations." Kim Byung-joo from the same party added, "Upon backtracking, the wooden boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the East Sea before midnight. For seven hours, our military was completely in the dark," and criticized, "If armed personnel had boarded this boat, significant damage would have been expected."

The ruling and opposition parties also engaged in heated debate over the necessity to suspend the effectiveness of the September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement.

Lee Chae-ik of the People Power Party said, "I fully agree with the need to suspend the effectiveness of the (September 19) agreement," and regarding Defense Minister Shin Won-sik’s response that North Korea violated the agreement over 3,600 times in the northwestern area in the past five years, he stated, "The Ministry of National Defense under the Moon Jae-in administration should have formally investigated these violations. The prosecution should be requested to investigate, and strict punishment must be enforced."

In response, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, argued, "Will the nuclear threat decrease if the September 19 military agreement is terminated?" and claimed, "There seems to be no logical correlation between suspending the agreement’s effectiveness and reducing military clashes."

Regarding the need to identify those responsible for the death of Marine Chae Sang-byeong during the search for a missing person in Naeseongcheon, Yecheon-gun, Gyeongbuk, in July, both parties spoke with one voice. Song Gap-seok of the Democratic Party claimed that the military prosecution transferred the case to the police without including charges against Im Seong-geun, commander of the 1st Marine Division, in the investigation of the "Chae Sang-byeong death incident," thereby shifting responsibility to subordinates, and pointed out, "The crisis we face is not only the reduction of manpower resources due to population decline but also the distrust in the military, which is the only remaining manpower resource."

Han Ki-ho, chairman of the National Defense Committee from the People Power Party, said that Commander Im is currently under police investigation and urged, "The minister, the Marine Corps commander, and the division commander must all feel responsible for this. We must humbly listen to the voice of the people."

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