(LEAD) Ruling party chief warns of 'resolute punishment' against N. Korea

All News 14:42 November 03, 2022

(ATTN: UPDATES with rival parties' response to N. Korea's missile launches)

SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- Ruling party leader Chung Jin-suk on Thursday called for the South Korean military to resolutely punish North Korea in the event it plunders the country's sovereignty with further provocations.

"If North Korea intrudes into our territorial waters and territory to plunder the Republic of Korea's sovereignty, our military should punish them in a resolute manner," Rep. Chung of the People Power Party said in a Facebook post.

Chung's remarks came amid the North's intensifying missile provocations.

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile and two short-range ones toward the East Sea on Thursday, just a day after it launched a barrage of missiles, including one that flew across its de facto maritime border with the South for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

"If we overlook the conventional provocations North Korea is carrying out on the back of its nuclear arms, we cannot but endlessly be pushed around as its ransom," he said.

Chung called on the military to ramp up its capacity to an "overwhelming" level to counter the North.

"It is certain that North Korea will continue minor provocations incessantly," Chung said. "The military should take stern measures. Only when we are equipped with an overwhelming military capacity to deter the North can we prevent a war."

Rival parties denounced the North for pushing ahead with consecutive missile launches, especially at a time of national mourning.

"If the Kim Jong-un regime continues to proceed with its wrong judgments, no one can guarantee peace on the Korean Peninsula," Rep. Yang Kum-hee, spokesperson for the ruling People Power Party, said.

Main opposition Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun slammed the North for the provocations.

"The North's provocations are driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to an extreme end and cannot be accepted for any reason," Park said. "Pushing ahead with military provocations at a time the people of South Korea are suffering is a regressive behavior going against humanity."