South Korea’s two main political parties on Friday joined in criticism of North Korea for keeping up with its missile barrage while the country is grieving the 156 lives lost to the Halloween stampede in Seoul over the previous weekend.

In a resolution adopted by its committee for national defense, the National Assembly said that North Korea firing missiles was a clear violation of both the September 2018 agreement and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1,718.

The committee's resolution called for North Korea to immediately cease its missile launches and warned that failing to do so would lead to the Kim Jong-un regime’s isolation from the international community and threaten its survival.

It added that such military provocations would only strengthen South Korea’s alliance with the US, and that North Korea should without hesitation resume dialogue for denuclearization and peace in the Korean Peninsula.

Rep. Lee Hun-seung, on the National Assembly’s committee for national defense, said in a release that the resolution was approved unanimously by lawmakers of both the ruling and opposition parties.

“All of the lawmakers joined in voicing concerns over North Korea’s military provocations, and called on our government to implement defenses to protect South Koreans from the threats,” he said.

On the same day, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s chair Lee Jae-myung proposed a bipartisan meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol over the North Korean threats.

He said if North Korea continues to engage in brinkmanship, the country would find itself in isolation.

“If you keep pushing, you’re going to fall off the brink of the cliff, and that cliff is called international isolation,” he said.

He said it was “heinous” of North Korea to fire missiles when South Korea was still in mourning over the deadly crowd surge that took place over the weekend before Halloween.

The ruling People Power Party’s interim chair, Rep. Chung Jin-suk, said the “only strategy” against provocations from North Korea was a strong South Korea-US military alliance.

“North Korea has to realize that if it goes on with its provocations that could end up toppling the Kim regime,” he said.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)