Search Results for: moon chung-in

Moon Chung-in the academic behind many of former President Moon Jae-in’s North Korea appeasement policies steps down from the think tank he has been leading due to embezzlement charges:

Moon Chung-in, chairman of the national policy think tank Sejong Institute under the Foreign Ministry, said he will step down from his position, after the recent audit by the ministry to inspect the institute on the case of alleged embezzlement of some 1 billion won ($757,000) every year.  
   
Moon served as the special advisor for unification, diplomacy and national security affairs for President Moon Jae-in.  
   
Moon expressed his intent to no longer serve his role at the institute on Monday, according to the Sejong Institute on Tuesday. It will soon open a board meeting to vote on Moon’s resignation. A source from the think tank said his resignation may be linked to the recent budget audit. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but critics are saying that Moon Chung-in is being targeted with the audit so the Yoon administration can have him replaced. Both things can be true, may he was targeted and maybe he was aware of the embezzlement going on.

No soon after I post an article speculating that South Korea is pursuing a policy of neutrality here comes President Moon’s trial balloon expert advocating for this exact policy:

South Korea should work together with Australia, Canada and Japan to form regional economic or security frameworks so as to create a new order free from the burden of choosing sides between the United States and China, an adviser to President Moon Jae-in said Friday.

Moon Chung-in, special foreign policy and security adviser, made the remarks during a virtual seminar, stressing that it is very unlikely the tensions between Washington and Beijing will get any better under the next U.S. administration of Joe Biden. 

“The Biden administration will be using a softer tone, but the policy will be as tough as Trump’s. There will be a tougher American encirclement of China, although he might be more selective in terms of technology and economy,” he said in the seminar hosted by the Korean Association for Public Diplomacy. 

“That will put us in an extremely difficult position. It will restore the old ‘bloc diplomacy’ … in the form of a new Cold War,” he said. 

Moon added that a worsening of U.S.-China tensions will make it difficult to resolve the North Korea issue peacefully.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Cold War era strategy worked and served South Korea’s national interest very well.

Everyone needs to remember that Moon Chung-in is the trial balloon specialist for the Moon Jae-in administration.  Because the US will not drop sanctions until North Korea denuclearizes it appears that the South Koreans are instead going to try and get around sanctions by throwing around the term “humanitarian assistance” and even more strangely “humanitarian businesses”:

Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, foreign and security affairs, made the remark during a lecture in Seoul, reiterating President Moon’s earlier remark that rewards for the North’s denuclearization steps do not necessarily have to be a relaxation of sanctions.

“Many American citizens wish to conduct humanitarian businesses in North Korea, but cannot due to government restrictions,” the adviser said. “Relieving those restrictions could send a fairly positive message to North Korea.”

Former President Moon’s foreign policy advisor, Moon Chung-in has an interview in the Korea Times. Part of the interview focuses on what he thinks a President Trump presidency would mean for South Korea:

Q: If Trump were to be re-elected, what would his approach be toward North Korea? Would we witness another Trump-Kim bromance?

A: In a potential second term, Trump will prioritize solidifying his political legacy. His foreign policies would be greatly influenced by media attention and personal ego, as he values how history will remember him. Striking a “big deal” with Pyongyang and contributing to peace on the Korean Peninsula could serve as a pathway to fulfilling such an ambition, potentially earning him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. While resolving the war in Ukraine or the Gaza crisis could also enhance his Nobel Prize prospects, negotiations with North Korea are likely to be a key agenda for Trump.

In that sense, Trump will actively engage North Korea, potentially even considering a visit to Pyongyang for a summit with Kim Jong-un, where Trump could present surprising offers. However, the success of such endeavors ultimately depends on Kim’s response.

Q: What would Kim want from Trump? And considering that their previous attempts did not yield favorable results, does that mean they will have to start from square one? 

A: Kim has little to lose by fostering a close relationship with Trump, as showcasing friendship with a global leader sends a powerful message both domestically and internationally.

However, the problem is that Kim’s trust in Trump was shattered when the former president did not keep his promise made during the Panmunjeom summit in June 2019. To mend that fractured trust, Trump would need to extend significant overtures this time. This could include pledges on immediate sanctions relief that would visibly improve North Korea’s economy, followed by the normalization of bilateral relations between Pyongyang and Washington. Additionally, Trump might propose halting joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, or even reducing the number of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) troops. In exchange, he could seek commitments from North Korea to cease nuclear and missile activities, along with a gradual reduction of its nuclear arsenal.

Korea Times

You can read much more at the link.

Here is the latest dustup between the Moon administration and the American led United Nations Command:

A feud between the government and the United Nations Command (UNC) seems to be intensifying as the former has complained of a series of recent decisions by the command regarding inter-Korean issues.

Some critics, including senior government officials, say the U.S.-led UNC, which administers the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), has overstepped its authority regarding the Moon Jae-in administration’s peace initiatives on the Korean Peninsula as part of efforts to maintain its presence here. 

The latest friction occurred, Tuesday, after the UNC concluded that both South and North Korea violated the Armistice Agreement when they gunfire was exchanged inside the DMZ, May 3, adding that it was unable to determine whether North Korean soldiers fired intentionally or by mistake. 

The findings are in stark contrast to the Ministry of National Defense’s conclusion that the shots fired by North Korean troops across the border were accidental, a stance later echoed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. As a result, the ministry expressed regret over the UNC’s findings immediately after its announcement, saying in a press statement that the command reached its conclusion without a practical investigation of the gunfire from the North. 

Korea Times

If there was no evidence to support that it was an accidental firing than that is what the UNC should report. The UNC was doing its job while the Moon administration would rather they support the political position they took on shooting incident.

Of course here come the usual suspects to include North Korea’s favorite bag man Im Jong-seok to condemn the UNC:

Former presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok said in a recent interview with a local magazine that the UNC was trying to exceed its authority.

“The command has to do only what it has to do over entry into and exits from the DMZ and passage over the MDL, but it is acting like it has special rights. This needs to be fixed as soon as possible,” he said.

Moon Chung-in, the special security adviser to President Moon, also said in a media interview, last September, that the UNC was the “biggest barrier” to improving inter-Korean relations.

“The UNC blocks North-South Korean transactions across the DMZ. According to the Armistice Agreement, it only has to administer the DMZ and the MDL. Should it continue doing so, South Korean people may have antipathy toward the command,” he said.

Im Jong-seok makes it seem that the UNC should just be gate guards that allow free passage of anything the Moon administration wants to do to include violating sanctions.

I have been saying that after the April elections that if the Moon administration did not feel like that their was momentum in their inter-Korean strategy that they would eventually play the anti-US card. This may be their first trial balloon towards playing the anti-US card.

Here is what President Moon’s trial balloon specialist had to say prior to next’s week summit between President Trump and President Moon:

The United States should give South Korea more leverage that it can use in dealing with North Korea, such as leeway in inter-Korean exchanges, if it wants Seoul to play a greater role in facilitating the stalled nuclear talks, a special presidential adviser said Thursday.

Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, foreign and security affairs, made the remark during a conference in Seoul, a week before Moon holds talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.

The adviser said it will be a “herculean task” for Moon to play such a facilitating role so long as the North sees South Korea and the U.S. as on the same side.

Yonhap

I am being facetious here, but shouldn’t the U.S. and the ROK be on the same side when it comes to the denuclearization talks so the North Koreans cannot play one off against the other?

Any reading this site for long knows that the Moon administration is not really on the same side as the US and Moon Chung-in is just publicly stating what President Moon can’t. The Moon administration has long advocated lifting sanctions on the Kaesong Industrial Park and the Kumgang Tourism Resort. Both projects were once huge cash cows for the Kim regime before they were shut down by prior conservative governments.

North Korea wants to reopen these sanction busing projects for little to nothing in return as part of their “pretend denuclearization” strategy that the Moon administration endorses.

It looks like the Kim regime is not happy with what the Trump administration is offering for the Trump-Kim II Summit and have had President Moon send out his trial balloon guru Moon Chung-in to let Washington know of their displeasure:

Only North Koreans can dismantle nuclear and missile facilities in North Korea, not international experts, according to President Moon Jae-in’s security adviser, Moon Chung-in.

Moon said Washington should offer some substantial concessions beyond opening a liaison office in Pyongyang to make the upcoming second Washington-Pyongyang summit successful.

He made the remarks in an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun.

“Only North Korean technicians are able to disband its nuclear warheads safely and completely,” said Moon, special adviser for unification, diplomacy and national security.

“This is because the North Korean experts designed and outlined core specifics of its nuclear facilities and entirely handled the nuclear development. It’s required for the United States to offer a rewards programs to help the regime remain cooperative in the ongoing collective work toward dismantling its nuclear program.”

The adviser didn’t say whether the U.S. officially asked North Korea to hand over a list of nuclear experts who were directly involved in the development of its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as one of the prerequisites to comply with Washington’s repeated calls to disband its nuclear program, verifiably and completely.

North Korea tested its first ICBM ― the Hwasong-14 ― on July 4, 2017, shocking the world by demonstrating advanced capabilities beyond what many believed possible for the rogue country.

The Trump administration initially refused to believe it, but later acknowledged that North Korea had, in fact, launched an ICBM. ICBMs are regarded as a direct threat to the U.S. mainland, though it’s still unconvinced North Korea has mastered warhead miniaturization, re-entry systems and missile guidance due to technological challenges. 

The presidential aide told the Japanese daily that North Korea “would be dissatisfied” if the United States only agreed to end the Korean War and open a liaison office in the North Korean capital as these are “superficial and not something relating to actual economic benefits the North want.”

“An early restart of economic projects with South Korea such as reopening of Gaeseong Industrial Complex and other economic projects are needed, as one evident point is Kim Jong-un most wants sanctions relief to revive his country’s dilapidated economy with financial assistance from the restarts of now-halted inter-Korean business projects,” Moon said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any following the denuclearization negotiations that Moon Chung-in wants the US to drop sanctions for little or nothing in return from North Korea:

Washington remains largely skeptical of the North Korean leader’s intention to denuclearize.

Amid these circumstances, a special adviser to the President stated a paradigm shift may be necessary.

“The U.S. views North Korea in the frame of crime and punishment ―- this is its social construct of reality that North Korea cheats and lies,” Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, diplomacy and national security affairs, told The Korea Times in an interview at his office last week.

“But if it only looks at Pyongyang through this frame there is no way out. There needs to be a more pragmatic, flexible approach to North Korea.”

Stalled talks

Moon attributes the stall in denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S. to differences surrounding when to lift sanctions.

“Basically the stance of the U.S. is that sanctions will be lifted when North Korea achieves complete denuclearization, which North Korea cannot accept,” he said.

He pointed out that while Pyongyang initially called only for a declaration ending the war, it is now stating this is not enough because Kim offered to permanently dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility in his third summit with Moon held in Pyongyang. The U.S., meanwhile, wants North Korea to disclose its nuclear arsenal and submit to inspections, the adviser said.

However, Pyongyang would be unwilling to report its entire nuclear inventory for two reasons, he said.

“First, why would North Korea hand over a list of its inventory while relations with the U.S. are still hostile? This would leave the regime defenseless,” Moon said.

The other reason is based on the inherent nature of declaring inventory.

“The U.S. states that North Korea has 60 to 65 nuclear warheads, but if it has less than this amount, the U.S. will never believe it even if Pyongyang makes a declaration. Washington will continue to call for additional reports and the process will fall through. This will leave North Korea in a worse situation than before making the report.”

This is why Pyongyang is calling for a trust relationship to be built first, he said.

“The North is seeking a non-aggression relationship through the declaration ending the war, and for the U.S. to take corresponding measures for the shutting down of the Yongbyon facility in a verifiable way ―- such as lifting sanctions,” he said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but Moon Chung-in is the ROK administration’s trial balloon specialist to judge American reaction to proposed ideas.  In the past year Moon Chung-in has stated his opposition to the THAAD battery in South Korea and has hinted at ending the US-ROK alliance.  He has even said the US US should recognize North Korea as a nuclear power which is a curious position since he says North Korea is planning to supposedly denuclearize.

Below are excerpts from some more great analysis by Professor B.R. Myers about the state of Inter-Korean affairs and the United States.  This first excerpt shows how President Moon really feels about the US-ROK alliance:

This is in line with the remarkable discretion Moon Jae-in has sustained since the start of his election campaign. Never does he speak more guardedly than when around foreigners critical of the North. Shortly after he took office I asked two Americans who had talked with him on separate occasions what impression they had got: “well-rehearsed,” said one, “well-drilled” the other. Had he given vent to the sort of anti-American, pro-North remarks Roh Moo Hyun went in for (though Roh was conservative in comparison), his policies would have encountered more resistance.

His base knows how he really feels. During the presidential election campaign in 2012 the novelist Kong Chi-yŏng, a prominent supporter, tweeted cheerfully that the Yankee-go-home candidate Lee Jung-Hee sounded “like Moon’s inner voice.” The conservatives pounced, and she had to do a quick Prufrock: It wasn’t what she’d meant at all. Since then the Moon camp has shown remarkable discipline. Professor Moon Chung-in is an exception of sorts, since it’s his job to send up trial balloons.  [B.R. Myers]

I have long believed that President Moon is just a better polished, smarter, and more disciplined version of former President Roh Moo-hyun.  Remember Moon was Roh’s Chief of Staff during his presidency, so learned well from all of Roh’s mistakes.  This discipline and political smarts he learned has allowed Moon to sell himself as a centrist when he is in fact a leftist.

This next excerpt shows how the Moon administration plans to implement their confederation plans with North Korea:

To assume that the two Korean administrations do not already see each other as confederates, and behave accordingly, albeit discreetly, is like assuming that a man and woman planning a marriage are not yet having sex. When we ask for Moon’s help in getting the other half of the peninsula to denuclearize, we are in effect asking this fervent nationalist to help remove the future guarantor of a unified Korea’s security and autonomy. Why should he comply? The only remaining point of the US-ROK alliance is to ease the transition to a confederation — which would obviate that alliance altogether.

The recent news of South Korean violations of sanctions (and of a presidential award just given to the main importer of North Korean coal) is merely illustrative. It’s trivial in comparison to the basic truth staring us in the face: No true liberal-democratic ally of the United States would think of leaguing up with an anti-American dictatorship, let alone one still in the thrall of a personality cult. I’m not sure whether the Trump administration is unaware of this or merely pretending to be.

At any rate a peculiar pattern has repeated itself every few weeks or so since Moon took office. It goes like this. First the Blue House is caught in some statement or act of disloyalty to the spirit of the alliance — like appointing an unrepentant former enforcer of North Korean copyrights to the second most powerful post in the government. (I don’t mean the prime minister.) South Korean conservatives then shout in chorus, “The Americans won’t stand for this!” Whereupon the White House rushes to say, in effect, “Oh yes we will!” It seems to revel in making pro-American, security-minded South Koreans look foolish.  (…….)

It’s therefore easy to imagine Trump or Pompeo expressing support for whatever “peace system” Moon and Kim happen to agree on, so long as progress toward denuclearization is made first. Any significant step in that direction — which we can expect the upcoming Pyongyang summit to announce with great fanfare — would then compel the US to sign off on  confederation, thus encouraging the South Korean public to do likewise. Before we know it, the ROK could be locked in an embrace it might eventually need American help to get out of.  [B.R. Myers]

As always I highly recommend reading the whole article from Professor Myers at the link, but at some point you would think the Trump administration would start pushing back on President Moon’s pro-North Korean agenda.  Possibly the suspension of Inter-Korean railway inspections by the United Nations Command is the start of a push back?

President Moon continues to say all the right things in his continuing effort to get President Trump to sign up for the recent charm offensive with North Korea:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in flatly dismissed the idea of U.S. troops stationed here pulling out following a formal end to the Korean War, saying the issue has nothing to do with North Korea but only with the Korea-U.S. alliance.

“U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is a matter of the South Korea-U.S. alliance. It has nothing to do with signing a peace treaty,” the president said, according to his spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

In a historic summit held at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Friday, Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to push for a peace treaty that would formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.

Moon’s remarks came shortly after his special adviser Moon Chung-in hinted at the possibility of a withdrawal.

“What will happen to U.S. forces in South Korea if a peace treaty is signed? It will be difficult to justify their continuing presence in South Korea after its adoption,” the former Yonsei University professor said in a contributed articled published Monday by U.S. magazine Foreign Affairs.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but here is something to consider on what could happen with USFK if a peace treaty is agreed to.  Possibly the future of USFK could look a lot like the current THAAD site in Seongju.  President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence.  In Seongju he continues to allow the blockade of the THAAD site which has made it extremely difficult to sustain and causing the quality of life for the soldiers there to be reportedly very poor.

After a peace treaty is signed President Moon could allow his army of leftist supporters to protest and blockade US military bases to make life miserable for US servicemembers in Korea.  Servicemembers stationed in Korea back in the 2002-2004 timeframe remember how bad serving in Korea was due to the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident and the massive protests it created.  It got so bad that US soldiers were kidnapped from the subway and forced to make coerced statements in a sports stadium, some soldiers were grabbed off the streets and beaten, and USFK bases were even fire bombed.

Remember Moon Jae-in was the Chief of Staff for the ROK President at the time, Roh Moo-hyun who allowed all the outrageous behavior to happen.  Then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s threat to withdraw USFK was what eventually stopped the protests and attacks on troops.  What if President Moon this time just allows the protests and attacks to continue and the US decides on its own to withdraw?