PPP blasts Lee government over DMZ mine blast probe delay, calls it grounds for impeachment

The People Power Party is sharply criticizing the Lee Jae Myung government, accusing it of deliberately delaying the investigation into a suspected mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone and allowing evidence of North Korean involvement to disappear.

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok held a press conference at the National Assembly on Sunday, saying the explosion was "highly likely" caused by a wooden box mine recently planted by North Korean troops who crossed the Military Demarcation Line. "That would constitute a clear act of aggression," Jang said. "Yet the military reportedly only began preliminary preparations — not even a full investigation — five days after the incident."

Jang went further, saying that if President Lee Jae Myung deliberately delayed the on-site investigation, "that is a clear act of treason — it constitutes the crime of foreign conspiracy, which falls outside presidential immunity from prosecution." He added: "It is a crime warranting not just impeachment but immediate detention and trial."

The party also pushed back collectively against remarks by Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Byung-joo, a former four-star general who leads his party's side on the National Defense Committee. At a press conference on Saturday, Kim dismissed opposition concerns that rain could wash away evidence at the scene, calling such claims "superstition, not science."

Five-term lawmaker Yun Sang-hyun wrote on Facebook: "How can worrying that rain might damage or destroy evidence at the scene be called superstition?" He urged the government to clarify through objective data and investigation results why no on-site probe was conducted immediately after the incident, what consultations took place between the UN Command and the South Korean military, and whether evidence preservation was properly handled throughout the process.

Seong Il-jong, who served as chair of the National Assembly's Defense Committee during the first half of the 22nd National Assembly, also posted on SNS: "Is he really a general who served in the field? I have never seen a general who dismisses physical evidence at a scene." He condemned the ruling party for staying silent and focusing only on defending the administration even as "something utterly incomprehensible has happened inside the DMZ."

Five-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won wrote on SNS that the government "kept dragging its feet and stonewalling over the mine explosion disaster, and now that public sentiment has turned ugly, it is finally putting on a belated show — and only after heavy rain has fallen, six days after the explosion." She urged the immediate convening of a joint parliamentary hearing on diplomacy and security, as well as a combined hearing of the Foreign Affairs and Unification, Defense, and Intelligence committees, adding that a parliamentary investigation should follow depending on the outcome.

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon wrote on Facebook: "If they refused the UN Command's offer to investigate immediately, deliberately ran out the clock, let evidence get swept away in a forecast downpour, and then say it is 'unclear whether it was a North Korean mine' — the Lee Jae Myung administration is finished. It deserves to be."