One of the key mandates and missions of the opposition is to watch over the government in power, criticize it and offer alternatives if it does something wrong.

But the Korean opposition often sticks to opposition for the sake of opposition without offering options. The opposition is holding on to such a habit even in a time of a grave security crisis.

The main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea said it is opposed to the government’s decision to pull South Korean businesses out of the Gaeseong industrial park in North Korea in retribution for its nuclear test and long-range missile launch.

It says the decision will only exacerbate tensions on the peninsula by completely cutting off inter-Korean exchanges and it will not offer the ultimate solution to the current situation. It did not offer any ideas of how to cope with the growing security threat from the North.

The Minjoo Party and the People’s Party also made it clear that they oppose the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system, again without providing convincing alternatives to counter the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

As an alternative means, the People’s Party did call for the establishment of an indigenous missile defense system -- the Korea Air and Missile Defense -- at an early date. But its target year is 2023 and how much sooner could it be put in place? We may get it one or two years sooner, but then how will we be able to defend ourselves if the North develops a nuclear-tipped missile one year or two from now? 

In the U.S., the Senate approved a bill to sanction North Korea by a 96-0 vote. It may be too big a hope to see a similar bipartisan unity here in dealing with the North, yet issues surrounding its nuclear and missile capabilities should never be a subject of political exploitation. We raise this concern all the more because the general election is only about two months away.