Tag: Moon Jae-in

It appeared that when Trump was in office he did not have a good relationship with Moon and his latest remarks validate this:

Former president Donald Trump on Friday accused his South Korean counterpart of ripping off the United States, while continuing to highlight his supposed friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who I have gotten to know (and like) under the most trying of circumstances, never respected the current President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in,” Trump said in a statement.

“President Moon was weak as a leader and as a negotiator, except when it came to the continued, long term military ripoff of the USA… We were treated like fools for decades, however, I got them to pay billions of dollars more for the military protection and services we render.”

“The Biden Administration is not even going to ask for the additional billions South Korea agreed to pay us,” Trump added, referring to current President Joe Biden.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It wasn’t all that long ago when the ruling Democratic Party were smug and seemed unbeatable. That is no longer the case:

 After his Democratic Party (DP) suffered an election rout, President Moon Jae-in stated Thursday that he takes it as a “reprimand” from the public.

He said he will carry out his duties with a “humble demeanor and heavy sense of responsibility,” according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok.

Moon was quoted as adding that he will concentrate efforts on meeting the people’s “desperate demands,” including overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, revitalizing the economy, stabilizing the people’s livelihoods and the real estate market, and rooting out corruption.

The liberal DP was overwhelmingly defeated by the conservative main opposition People Power Party in the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections the previous day.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Besides the US-ROK joint exercise that the North Koreans are unhappy about, this designation by President Moon might also be why the North Koreans conducted their recent missile test:

The government designated the fourth Friday in March as the Yellow Sea Defense Day to remember those who were killed in waters off the west coast during three battles against North Korea’s provocations in 2002 and 2010.

This year marks the 11th anniversary of two of the three incidents — North Korea’s deadly sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26, 2010, and the communist nation’s artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, a front-line island in the Yellow Sea, on Nov. 23, 2010.

Moon said that the government has worked hard to possess “overwhelming” military strength to preserve and create peace. 

“Not a single soldier has been injured or killed in the past four years in the Yellow Sea due to armed clashes or military provocations. This is proof that a powerful force creates peace,” he said.

The president also highlighted the government’s plan to deploy a light aircraft carrier by 2033 produced by South Korean technology and deploy a 3,000-ton submarine program, which has been in development since 2018, by 2024.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I was a bit surprised that the Moon administration actually made this designation considering their default appeasement policy towards North Korea. Plus many in the Korean left still believe that North Korea did not sink the Cheonan.

By the way there has been far more incidents than just the sinking of the Cheonan and the Yeonpyeong Island shelling in the Yellow Sea. The 2002 West Sea Naval Battle was another major deadly clash in these waters:

This seems pretty naive on Moon’s part to the political realities in the U.S. that incoming President Biden is going to follow any policy that Trump advocated for:

South Korea proposed to the incoming Joe Biden administration a reopening of dialogue with North Korea in the spirit of the 2018 Singapore summit, according to a senior official in Seoul on Monday.  
   
The official told the JoongAng Ilbo that Seoul cast outgoing President Donald Trump’s agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Singapore in June 2018 as a success, and encouraged new talks along similar lines.  
   
It was not revealed to whom in the Biden camp the message was relayed, or how, although the recipients are believed to be diplomatic figures associated with the president-elect. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

More bad news for President Moon:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has tied its all-time low, while public disapproval of his job performance has surged to the highest point so far, a poll showed Monday.

In the four-day Realmeter survey conducted on 2,008 people, aged 18 or older, nationwide till last Thursday, 36.7 percent of respondents supported the president, down 2.8 percentage points from the previous week.

Moon’s rating had fallen to 36.7 percent, the lowest since he took office in May 2017, in the second week of December and bounced back to 39.5 percent the following week in Realmeter’s tracking polls.

The proportion of those who gave a negative assessment of Moon’s presidency rose 2 percentage points to a record high of 59.7 percent.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.