PPP says it's ready to be tough with North Korea

PPP chief whip Kwon Seong-dong, left, talks to Foreign Minister Park Jin during a party-government meeting at the National Assembly on Wednesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

A leader of the People Power Party (PPP) says it will not give in to pressure from North Korea amid signs of an imminent seventh nuclear test.

“Another nuclear test would simply be a reckless gamble that risks the lives of North Koreans,” said People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Kwon Seong-dong at a Wednesday meeting of high-ranking PPP leaders and officials from President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration at the National Assembly.

Attendees included Foreign Minister Park Jin, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, and Shin In-ho, deputy director of the National Security Office.

Kwon warned the North that it “has nothing to gain from committing further provocations, except for stiff international sanctions and retribution,” and expressed outrage that the North had conducted 18 missile tests this year so far.

Declaring that South Korea “will no longer be unilaterally dragged around by North Korea,” Kwon drew a contrast between the current PPP-led administration and that of former President Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party (DP).

The PPP has long criticized the Moon administration and the DP for being soft on North Korea, as well as for tolerating political figures accused of promoting a pro-North Korea agenda in the South, such as former DP lawmaker Lim Su-kyung and former presidential Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok.

“The Yoon administration is different from the previous administration,” said Sung Il-jong, chairman of the PPP’s policy committee. “Cooperation between South Korea and the United States is stronger than ever before, we will not overlook any provocations by North Korea, and we are fully prepared."

The party’s Secretary-General Han Ki-ho was blunter in his criticism of the Moon administration, saying it was time to “kick aside” the end-of-war declaration pursued by Moon and the “fake show of peace,” which Han described as “hoodwinking the public.”

Shin emphasized the Yoon administration's contrasting attitude toward North Korean provocations, describing the Moon government as “only holding meetings but essentially doing nothing if provocations occurred.”

The renewed hard-line stance by the PPP and members of the Yoon administration follows the hawkish views of the president, who vowed his government “will deal sternly and sternly with any provocations from North Korea,” during a Memorial Day speech at the National Cemetery on Monday.
In an indirect warning to Pyongyang, Yoon also emphasized that South Korea “has developed critical and practical security capabilities to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.”

The Defense Ministry under Yoon’s presidency has revived references to a “tri-axial system” to contain the missile threat from North Korea.

The tri-axial system refers to the Kill Chain preemptive strike system, the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan.

Kill Chain is a system to carry out a preemptive strike against Pyongyang's nuclear and missile facilities if Seoul is faced with an imminent threat, while the KAMD would trace and shoot down North Korean ballistic missiles heading for South Korea. The KMPR would be used to punish and retaliate against North Korea if it strikes South Korea.

References to the tri-axial system disappeared during the Moon administration, but were revived in recent Defense Ministry white papers.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]