Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Chul Woo hosted a debate on the 29th at the National Assembly with the provocative title, ‘Can we protect South Korea if we abandon the NLL?’ The goal was to assert that if the joint fishing zone in the West Sea promoted by the Moon Jae In campaign were to be established then North Korea’s desired incapacitation of the NLL would have occurred and the defense of South Korea would become much more difficult.

Party campaign committee chair Chung Mong Joon declared during his congratulatory address, “With just 51 days remaining before the election, I am deeply concerned about the disappearance from the election debate of some of the most critical diplomatic and security issues,” adding, “The left’s claims about the NLL are one example of this pretense, hypocrisy and contradiction.”

Chung went on to criticize Ahn Chul Soo as well, saying, “He has never spoken about diplomacy and national security. He probably has not had any time to study diplomatic and security issues because he was busy as a doctor and computer programmer. He wrote in his book ‘Ahn Chul Soo’s Thoughts’ that ‘we should create a peace system,’ but I wonder if it is that simple.”

Former Navy Chief of Staff and currently Saenuri Party lawmaker Kim Sung Chan asserted also, “The NLL is clearly our territorial boundary. The first and second Yeonpyeong sea battles occurred because of the NLL, and we can say that the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island attack came after former President Roh Moo Hyun made his comments about abandoning the NLL and Kim Jong Il didn’t accede to them.”

Meanwhile, Yoon Doo Ho, the father of a soldier killed in the 2nd Battle of Yeonpyeong, pointed out, “We are forgetting to thank the naval and ground forces stationed at the NLL for risking their lives for us. It is because of them that we are able to sleep comfortably at night in that area. It is pathetic that the NLL is even debatable in the National Assembly. I don’t know why we are wrestling over something that is so obvious.”