[Anchor]

Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul emphasized that the South Korean military's operation to remove North Korean landmines on the western front the day before yesterday (the 5th) was a "decisive response." However, the conservative opposition parties criticized that detonating a few North Korean landmines after our soldiers were injured amounted to a "surrender of security sovereignty."

This is Kim Taehun, Defense Specialist Reporter.

[Reporter]

Our military conducted a landmine removal operation 10 meters south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the exact location where the western front landmine explosion incident took place.

The explanation is that this was a countermeasure against the incident that injured three of our soldiers.

[Kang Shin-chul / Defense Minister (Yesterday): Yesterday, our military carried out necessary measures.]

When reporters asked whether clearing landmines south of the MDL—where our soldiers were hurt by North Korean landmines south of the MDL—was a passive response, Minister Kang answered as follows:

[Kang Shin-chul / Defense Minister: That is not true. This is actually the first time such a thing has happened in the history of our GOP and DMZ, and I view it as a decisive response.]

While stating that he will continue necessary measures, Minister Kang did not specify what those measures would be.

An official from the Ministry of Unification also stated, "We will review necessary measures while cooperating closely with related agencies such as the Ministry of Defense," suggesting that relevant details had been coordinated with the Ministry of Defense and others.

The official also remarked, "We must come up with a fundamental peace solution through communication based on a principle-to-principle approach rather than a tit-for-tat confrontation," which has also raised speculations that there may practically be no other countermeasures besides the landmine removal operation.

The People Power Party sharpened its criticism, calling it a "surrender of security sovereignty."

[Park Choong-kwon / People Power Party Lawmaker: Why can you not utter a single word or take any response against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's landmine provocation, while even the minister steps up to say that additional measures will be taken regarding Ukraine?]

If there are no follow-up measures after the landmine removal operation, the fallout from the western front landmine explosion incident is expected to escalate from inter-Korean conflict into internal conflict within South Korea.

(Camera Reporter: Kim Hyun-sang | Video Editor: Oh Young-taek | Designer: Park Cheon-woong)