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| ▲ The main opposition Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-geun speaks at a party meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Jan. 5, 2023. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) main opposition-NK drone
(LEAD) Main opposition slams military for belatedly confirming N.K. drone entering no-fly zone
(ATTN: ADDS main opposition party leader's comments)
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) denounced Thursday the military's belated confirmation of a North Korean drone's penetration of a no-fly zone around the presidential office in Seoul, calling for a parliamentary hearing on the incident.
Earlier in the day, military officials confirmed a North Korean drone briefly entered a 3.7-kilometer-radius no-fly zone around the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol in central Seoul last week, reversing their previous announcement that there was no such incident.
The drone was among the five unmanned aerial vehicles that the North sent across the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas on Dec. 26. The South Korean military failed to shoot them down, raising questions over its air defense posture.
"When will the security instability instigated by the incompetent government end?" DP floor leader Park Hong-geun said in a party meeting. "We should uncover the truth thoroughly, and hold the defense minister and the chief of the presidential security service accountable for trying to cover up a security failure."
DP Chair Lee Jae-myung called for Yoon to make a public apology, saying the military's bungled responses to the North Korean drone is a matter that can be subject to "the maximum punishment if it was at war."
"The president is doing the worst politics of sacrificing the national security by heightening the risk of war while saying peace should be protected to hide his government's incompetence and anxiety," Lee said.
DP Rep. Kim Byung-joo, a former Army general, claimed the relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan from nearby Jongno created holes in the air defense.
In a radio interview with MBC, Park Jie-won, an advisor to the DP and former spy chief, also slammed the presidential office's warning that it could suspend a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, accusing Yoon's office of trying to divert the public's attention away from the drone infiltration.
According to officials, Yoon instructed the National Security Office on Wednesday to consider suspending the military tension reduction agreement, which was signed as an annex to the Pyongyang Joint Declaration, in the event the North carries out a similar provocation.
Meanwhile, the ruling People Power Party supported Yoon, saying the instruction is a measure the president can make to protect people's lives and safety as the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces.
"The government is warning North Korea to better comply with the agreement, because Pyongyang is openly violating it," Rep. Ha Tae-keung said in a radio interview with CBS.
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