Tag: Moon Jae-in

Former Senior Officials from the Korean Foreign Service Issues Statement Critical of the Moon Administration

| July 9, 2019

Here is an excerpt from a joint statement put out by former senior officials of the Korean Foreign Service that was translated by Dr. Tara O:

Kim Jong-un looks down upon Moon Jae-in, while Moon writes

With massive economic, financial, and technological assistance from our staunch allies, including the United States and Japan, Korea was not only able to quickly rebuild its economy, but concentrate on developing key sectors, such as heavy industry, petrochemicals, construction, shipbuilding, automobiles, and the electronics industry, including semiconductors, to become one of the world’s leading industrial and trade powerhouses.

Strenuously ignoring this proud history of its foundation and the development of the Republic of Korea, President Moon Jae-in continues to threaten the Republic of Korea-U.S. alliance, which has served as the cornerstone of our nation’s development.

The close ties between our two nations is under assault from several fronts, including the transfer of wartime operational control between Korea and the U.S., a lukewarm response to the deployment of THAAD on the peninsula, refusal to take part in the U.S.-led missile defense system, and vacillation over participating in a Korea-U.S.-Japan partnership.

In its foreign policy towards Japan, the Moon administration has adopted the anachronistic stance of treating Japan as if it were still yesterday’s imperialist power, instead of one of today’s important defenders of free democracy and a member of the G7 countries.  The Moon administration continuously provokes Japan over emotionally-charged disputes regarding the misfortunes in the history of the two countries, and thereby not only harming our national interests, but earning the reproach of the international community.

Overly conscious of China, the Moon administration has adopted a recalcitrant attitude towards the Korea-U.S. defense partnership, making promises contrary to the Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance and taking an almost servile attitudes towards China, with little regard to our national sovereignty. 

On the other hand, the administration is relentlessly extending unrealistic reconciliatory gestures towards North Korea, the very party that has threatened our national foundation and subsequent stable and peaceful economic development.

East Asia Research Center

You can read more at the link.

President Moon Asks Japan to Withdraw Economic Retaliation in Return for “Sincere Consultations”

| July 9, 2019

You have to love the irony of President Moon asking for “sincere consultations” with Japan when his administration withdrew from the prior comfort women agreement and have been using the courts to further attack Japan for domestic political purposes:

President Moon Jae-in speaks at a meeting with senior Cheong Wa Dae aides at his office on July 8, 2019. (Yonhap)

President Moon Jae-in called on Japan on Monday to withdraw its recent export control against South Korean firms, describing it as an attempt to limit trade for a political purpose.

Breaking his strategic reticence on the sensitive issue, Moon said his administration will first make “calm” efforts to resolve it diplomatically.

In case of “actual damages” to South Korean companies, however, the government will be left with no other choice but to take “necessary” measures, he stressed, presiding over a meeting with senior Cheong Wa Dae officials.

He added he hopes to avoid such a vicious cycle of tit for tat.

“(I) call on the Japanese side to retract the measure and call for sincere consultations between the two countries,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I don’t see the Abe administration bending on this until the Moon administration agrees to uphold the 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

President Moon Claims Economic Sanctions on North Korea May Be Lifted

| June 16, 2019

President Moon must be thinking he is going to convince President Trump into a “pretend denuclearization” deal when they meet later this month in South Korea:

The international community is “open to discussions on easing economic sanctions on North Korea” with security guarantees from the progress of the denuclearization talks, according to President Moon Jae-in on Friday evening (KST).

“The international community is ready to ease economic sanctions on North Korea and provide firm security guarantees upon the level of progress in the denuclearization talks,” Moon said during his major speech in the Parliament House of Stockholm, Sweden.

Korea Times

President Trump Announces Trip to South Korea Next Month

| May 17, 2019

Another US President is heading to South Korea in the coming weeks:

This photo shows South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on April 11, 2019. (Yonhap)

U.S. President Donald Trump will visit South Korea next month for talks with President Moon Jae-in on the denuclearization of North Korea and alliance issues, Moon’s office announced Thursday amid growing concerns about the overall peace process.
Trump plans to visit South Korea in late June as part of his regional trip. He will travel to Osaka, Japan, for the two-day G-20 summit to open on June 28. 
The exact schedule for Trump’s second trip to South Korea as U.S. president remains unannounced. He made a state visit to South Korea in November 2017.
“The two leaders plan to discuss ways for the establishment of a permanent peace regime through the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the strengthening of the South Korea-U.S. alliance,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson, Ko Min-jung, said early Thursday morning (Seoul time).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.