Rep. Park Sun-won of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 19th sharply criticized Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, for remarks suggesting that South Korean territory begins at the southern fence line of the Demilitarized Zone, and demanded a formal apology. Park also called for a sweeping inspection of the military over last month's landmine explosion in the DMZ, raising the possibility that Rep. Yoo Yong-won of the People Power Party had influenced the military's operational decision-making.
Speaking at a Democratic Party supreme council meeting that day, Park said, "Why does the commander of U.S. Forces Korea decide where South Korean territory begins?" He called the comments "truly inappropriate and dangerous." Brunson is reported to have said in Washington on the 14th that, from the United Nations Command's perspective, South Korea begins at the general outpost fence line south of the DMZ.
"South Korea's territory is defined in the Constitution," Park said. "Neither the Military Demarcation Line nor the Southern Limit Line is a border that determines South Korea's territorial sovereignty." He added, "The U.N. Command managing military access to the DMZ under the Armistice Agreement and the exercise of South Korea's territorial sovereignty are entirely different matters. The authority to administer the Armistice Agreement by no means confers the authority to carve up South Korean territory."
Park also cited past cases in which the U.N. Command restricted inter-Korean exchanges. He pointed to the command's refusal to approve passage across the Military Demarcation Line during a joint survey of the Gyeongui rail line in 2018, and to limits placed on reporters bringing in coverage equipment for an inter-Korean civilian exchange event at Mount Kumgang in 2019. He also claimed that of 66 requests for access to Panmunjom filed through the Ministry of Unification from last year through August this year, nine were denied by the U.N. Command.
Responding to the U.N. Command's explanation that there is no question about South Korea's sovereignty amid the controversy over Brunson's remarks, Park said, "If he is a general, let him act like one. He should correct the expression himself, explain it clearly to the South Korean people and apologize." He added, "We will respect the alliance but will not concede sovereignty," and also raised the issue of the transfer of wartime operational control.
Park further raised the possibility that Yoo had intervened in the military's operational decision-making in connection with the landmine explosion that occurred in the DMZ on the 21st of last month. A mine laid by North Korean forces detonated, costing a South Korean soldier a foot, and Park argued that it must be determined how the military pushed ahead with the operation despite knowing the risks.
Park focused in particular on the fact that the unit involved in the accident volunteered for the survey mission after Yoo visited the military base. According to Park, Yoo visited the Army's 25th Infantry Division on Aug. 28 and met with the division commander, and three days later, on the 31st, the division commander volunteered for the survey mission to the Ground Operations Command commander. Yoo then disclosed the North Korean mine-laying situation in the area during a parliamentary question-and-answer session on Sept. 10, and the mine explosion occurred in the same area on the 21st.
"It must be revealed how this series of events was connected — Rep. Yoo Yong-won's visit to the 25th Division, the division commander's volunteering for the survey mission, the disclosure of the minefield in the National Assembly, and then soldiers setting off a mine," Park said. He then asked Yoo, "Did you apply pressure that the survey had to be expedited?" and demanded that Yoo explain whether he was involved in the military's operational decisions.
Park also urged the Ministry of National Defense to "confirm who recommended the operation and who approved it, and how demands and pressure from politicians affected the decisions of the 25th Division, the corps commander and the Ground Operations Command commander," calling for the Defense Investigation Headquarters to extend its inspection to the Ground Operations Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.