The People Power Party (PPP) sharply criticized the government's investigation results regarding HMM's Nammu vessel on Tuesday, asking whether "an unidentified flying object (UFO) attack by extraterrestrials" was being suggested.
PPP leader Jang Dong-hyuk said at a Supreme Council meeting on November 11 that "the government's preliminary investigation results on the Nammu attack released yesterday are missing two essential letters." He pointed to the missing word: "Iran." "Iran's state broadcaster has already reported that it 'targeted a Korean vessel,'" he said. "Even as the attacker confesses, the victim is denying it."
The government announced in its preliminary investigation that "two unidentified flying objects struck the Nammu," but has maintained its position that it "will not prejudge" the party responsible for the attack. The Iranian government also pushed back on November 6, stating it "firmly denies any claim that Iranian forces were involved in the Nammu explosion."
PPP lawmakers on the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee and the Defense Committee nonetheless urged President Lee Jae-myung and the relevant ministries to provide clear explanations. Rep. Kim Gun, the opposition secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said, "Despite a serious incident occurring, the public has not received a proper explanation from the government." He asked, "What did the government know immediately after the attack? Was its own intelligence-gathering capability lacking?"
He added, "It was only on the evening of the 10th, a week after the incident, that the government belatedly announced the fact of an external attack, yet it still cannot identify the attacker. Such an ambiguous stance on a matter involving the lives and property of the people is difficult to understand."
Defense Committee Chairman Sung Il-jong claimed, "We requested face-to-face briefings twice, but (the Defense Ministry) has treated this as someone else's problem, saying they had 'nothing to report.'" The Defense Committee held a plenary session that day for emergency questioning, but Democratic Party members and Defense Ministry officials did not attend.
The Democratic Party maintains that the PPP's criticism amounts to a "forced interpretation." Rep. Kim Young-bae, the Democratic Party secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee, protested, "Even before the accurate investigation results of the Nammu fire incident have emerged, they are stoking political conflict by invoking 'shirking of responsibility' and 'security catastrophe.'"
