I have no doubt that President Trump will consult with the ROK government before any preemptive strike on North Korea, the real question is how long before any strike will he consult and what influence will the ROK have on the decision?:
Moon Jae-in
The U.S. Donald Trump administration must have prior consultation with Seoul before taking any confrontational actions concerning North Korea, including launching a preemptive strike, South Korean politicians said.
The politicians, including presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said Seoul is directly involved in the North Korean issue, noting that any actions taken by Washington will have a direct impact on the Korean Peninsula. (…….)
“South Korea should be the owner of North Korean issues and take the lead in dealing with them rather than letting neighboring countries such as the U.S. and China manage them,” Moon told reporters, Saturday, referring to the outcome of the summit talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“The U.S. is talking about various possibilities regarding its confrontational actions on the North. The U.S. must consult with South Korea before whatever measure it takes,” he said. [Korea Times]
According to the article Ahn Cheol-soo is attracting conservative voters who have no other viable candidate to vote for in the upcoming ROK presidential election:
Ahn Cheol-soo
Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party has knocked frontrunner Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) off the top spot in several poll results released Sunday, a month before the May 9 election.
Moon, who had been leading the polls for months, slipped back to 32.7 percent as Ahn gained 36.8 percent in a poll conducted by Korea Research Center.
In the hypothetical two-way competition, Ahn beat Moon by over 10 percentage points, with 49.4 percent to Moon’s 36.2 percent.
Ahn was also neck and neck with Moon in other polls.
Another poll conducted by Hankook Research on the commission of Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, showed Moon gained 37.7 percent, and Ahn was on his heels, having 37 percent. [Korea Times]
You can read much more at the link, but to woo conservative voters Ahn has supported the THAAD deployment and maintaining tough sanctions on North Korea:
The more centrist Ahn Cheol-soo this week won the People’s Party nomination. He is currently second in the Realmeter poll at 34 percent, but he has been slowly closing the gap in recent weeks with Moon. The South Korean software mogul pulled out of the 2012 presidential election to support Moon, but this time he vows to stay in and expects to win.
On national security Ahn takes a somewhat tougher stance than Moon, supporting THAAD and international sanctions imposed on North Korea for breaching United Nations Security Council resolutions banning its nuclear program. But Ahn says he too would press for inter-Korean talks at some point.
“What is the purpose of putting in sanctions against North Korea? Because we would like to persuade them to come to the negotiating table at the time we want and under the conditions that we want,” said Ahn. [VOA News]
I guess the real question is if the conservative voters in a close election will be as motivated to turn out and vote for Ahn as Moon Jae-in’s voters will for him?
Things can change very quickly in South Korean politics as ROK Presidential front runner Moon Jae-in knows very well:
South Chungcheong Governor An Hee-jung’s approval rating for this year’s election rose to 19 percent in the latest poll, proving him to be a formidable contender to frontrunner Moon Jae-in and raising the prospect of a hard-fought Democratic Party primary.
In a poll by Gallup Korea, the 51-year-old two-term governor came in second with 19 percent, trailing Moon, who won 29 percent of support.
While An is still 10 percentage points behind Moon, the latest poll is an encouraging sign for his supporters considering the fast pace at which his popularity has risen: 9 percent in a matter of one week.
The poll has reaffirmed the strong position the governor has secured in recent days, as seen by the growth of his public appeal, while Moon, who ran in the 2012 race and was bitterly defeated by President Park Geun-hye, is struggling to raise his rating beyond the 30 percent range.
Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn came in third with 11 percent, up by two percent from a week earlier, demonstrating continued support from conservative voters disheartened by the Choi-gate scandal, which led to President Park’s impeachment.
Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung and Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party followed with 8 and 7 percent each. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but what is interesting is that An Hee-jung is raising his poll number by making himself the only liberal candidate so far who has come out to defend the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to Korea.
This is pretty much the typical political platform from the Korean left, THAAD is bad and lets talk to North Korea:
Moon Jae-in
“It is inappropriate for the THAAD deployment process to go on under the current political circumstances,” he said.
The commander of U.S. Forces Korea said last month the THAAD battery would be deployed to South Korea within eight to 10 months.
Moon held out the possibility of renegotiating the agreement to deploy the system, saying doing so would not damage relations with the United States. He said if elected, he would work to maintain strong ties with the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea.
Moon came top in a poll of possible presidential candidates released on Thursday by Realmeter, with 24 percent, compared with 19.5 percent for outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is widely expected to enter the race though he has yet to declare his intention to do so.
Moon, who is a liberal, criticized the conservative Park’s policy on North Korea for failing to end its nuclear program.
He said a two-track approach involving more talks would be more effective, adding he would be willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, if certain conditions were met. [Reuters]
I will never understand how these leftists continue to think that the Kim regime will ever denuclearize? How does he plan to do this? By more talks and negotiations with the North Koreans:
Rep. Moon Jae-in, a former leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and presidential aspirant, called on the government Sunday to temporarily suspend ongoing procedures to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system to the Korean Peninsula, demanding diplomatic efforts resume to denuclearize North Korea.
In his Facebook post, Moon also pointed out that the agreement between Seoul and Washington to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the peninsula by end-2017 needs parliamentary approval.
“Rather than arguing that only the THAAD deployment serves the national interests, there should be discussions about national interests from a more comprehensive perspective,” he wrote, apparently alluding to President Park Geun-hye’s defense of the deployment plan.
But he added it would not be easy to reverse the agreement with the United States, South Korea’s top security ally, to station a THAAD battery in a golf course in the southern county of Seongju, about 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Moon, then, said that South Korea has already shown to the world a “strong resolve” against Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs through the deployment decision, and that a delay would not cause any big change in the allies’ efforts to install the THAAD in Seongju.
“The fundamental resolution of North Korea’s nuclear problem is through the realization of (the goal to) denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “A freeze on the North’s nukes is urgent, and then we should go in a direction towards a complement dismantlement of the North’s nuclear arms.” [Yonhap]
