People Power Party attacks President Lee over 'last defensive weapon' nuclear remark

The People Power Party on 20 October criticised President Lee Jae-myung for calling North Korea's nuclear weapons a "last defensive weapon". Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk wrote on Facebook that North Korea openly declares it will deploy more nuclear weapons while Lee defends it by calling them defensive. He said Lee was "not the president of South Korea but a spokesman for North Korea's Workers' Party". [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Lee made the remark the day before while meeting reporters. According to Yonhap, he said some people ask whether North Korea has nuclear weapons, and that this is true, but asked whether they would fight a real war with them, adding that it was a "last defensive weapon". Maeil Business said he spoke while explaining the need to transfer wartime operational control, and that he stressed South Korea's conventional forces are stronger than the North's. [ 2 , 3 ]

Jang also cited a statement by Kim Yo Jong the previous day, in which she said the North was considering resuming loudspeaker broadcasts. He said a North Korean mine explosion had blown off the ankle of a member of the South Korean military and that the North was nonetheless speaking loudly. He asked whether Lee feared an "illegal remittance" receipt, and said the only way to protect the country was to bring down the Lee government as soon as possible. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook that even North Korea calls its nuclear weapons offensive, and asked what the president was doing. Maeil Business reported that she also opposed early transfer of wartime operational control. Ahn Cheol-soo called Lee's thinking a dangerous daydream and, according to Maeil Business, shared a video of a war video game with the comment that Lee should play a game if he did not understand the risk of North Korean provocation. Yoon Sang-hyun said the Democratic Party government's North Korea policy had helped the North's nuclear armament, and, per Chosun Ilbo, asked Lee to explain the basis of his remark. Former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min said it was not merely pro-North. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Chief spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said in a commentary that North Korea wrote the possibility of pre-emptive nuclear use into law in 2022, and that saying there would be no real use against a party that has written conditions for nuclear use into law was "fantasy and escapism". He demanded that Lee apologise and present effective nuclear deterrence measures. [ 1 , 2 , 4 ]

Yonhap also reported a commentary by Reform Party spokesperson Cha Ho, who noted that Lee said in January that North Korea keeps producing material for 10 to 20 nuclear weapons a year, and asked him to reassess the threat. The documents report no response from Lee or his office. [ 3 ]