South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s foreign policy “mentors” continue to make controversial and irresponsible comments that could harm the country’s alliance and relations with the United States.
Jeong Se-hyun, former unification minister under the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Mu-hyun administrations and current executive vice chairperson of the presidential National Unification Advisory Council, argued that an upcoming U.S. Congress public hearing (https://onekoreanetwork.com/2021/04/13/south-koreas-leaflet-ban-draws-international-condemnation-on-human-rights-grounds-2/) on South Korea’s ban on sending leaflets to North Korea is “some kind of interference in domestic affairs.”
Jeong made the comments on a TBS radio program hosted by controversial figure Kim Eo-jun on Monday. After the recent mayoral elections, nearly 200,000 South Korean people participated in the Blue House’s petition asking for banning Kim from hosting the program at the TBS, which is run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, for his biased stance toward the ruling Moon Jae-in administration.
“Regardless of how big a country the United States is, I think it is an illusion that the U.S. Congress can do whatever it wants to do. Coincidently or not, April 15, which is when the hearing will be held, is Kim Il-sung’s birthday, and I think they set the date for this specific reason. This is a moment when the hearing could irritate North Korea and influence the South Korean government and the U.S. foreign policy toward North Korea, and I think the hearing has impure intentions.”
He said that the hearing reflects the U.S. Republican Party’s intent to gain influence over the Biden administration’s North Korea policies. He also said that the commission does not have much authority to have an impact on the policy-making process. “This is not the type of hearing that can lead to a resolution, and it is more like a policy seminar,” he said. “However, what we have to be cautious about is that holding the hearing in this sensitive situation could have an impact on U.S. policy.”
He also argued that the witnesses to the hearing are biased. “We should not let hardliners talk about whatever they think is right and conservative ideas,” he said. “We should not let people who do not know the situation in the Korean Peninsula talk about it. It would be like people who have never been to Seoul talk about things like what Namdaemun Gate looks like.”
Jeong also said that North Korean defectors are sending leaflets to North Korea to make money. “Most of the leaflets sent to North Korea are prepared by North Korean defectors, and about 300 out of the 35,000 defectors residing in South Korea are participating in this job,” he said. “This is something that the vast majority of defectors are against. We should not allow about 300 people to make nearly 2.85 million people feel insecure.” He was referring to the 2.85 million people residing near the inter-Korean border. The Moon Jae-in administration argued that such activities had long exposed South Korean residents in border areas to physical danger, as North Korea often tried to shoot down the balloons to stop them from crossing the border. This was allegedly the main reason that the ruling Democratic Party (DP) proposed the controversial “anti-leaflet” law, which came into effect on March 30 this year.
Moon Chung-in, former special advisor to President Moon Jae-in for foreign affairs and national security who served until February this year, argued that “if South Korea were to stand by the U.S. side, the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula, including that of North Korea, would be difficult to guarantee,” in his interview with the Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper published on Sunday. “China will focus on supporting North Korea and Russia will also get involved in this situation to strengthen the alliance. The security burden for South Korea, which confronts them at the front lines, will expand infinitely.”
He also mentioned that South Korea should avoid a position where it has to choose between the United States and China. “As the conflict between the United States and China worsens, options for South Korea will get limited, and thus we need to focus on easing the tension between the two,” he argued. “The foreign policy that I am talking about is not something in which South Korea becomes a member of either the United States side or Chinese side. It means that we have to create a new order through multilateral cooperation and regional unity to prevent the conflict between the United States and China, and make room for diplomacy.” Moon called his idea “transcendental diplomacy.”
South Korean opposition party and representatives respond: “ridiculous” and “humiliating”
Tae Yong-ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat elected as a South Korean lawmaker, criticized Moon Chung-in’s latest comments as well as South Korean Ambassador to the United States Lee Soo-hyuck’s remark that “just because Korea chose the U.S. seventy years ago does not mean it has to choose the U.S. for the next seventy years.” (https://onekoreanetwork.com/2021/04/09/seouls-ambassador-to-the-u-s-criticized-for-ignoring-killing-of-koreans/) Tae said these comments are ridiculous.
“When considering these government officials’ latest comments, I think they are trying to send a message to North Korea that Seoul is trying to keep distance from the United States,” he said. “I think they chose this way because they do not think they have a justification to appeal directly to North Korea, as Pyongyang continues with its provocations.”
The main opposition People Power Party also released a statement on Monday that called out the government’s attempt to defame the commission. The Ministry of Unification argued that last week that the U.S. congressional commission “does not have the authority to make a legislative decision, and it is more like a policy group.”
The PPP’s statement said it is a national disgrace to see that such a hearing is taking place in the first place. “The country (South Korea) with the president who was previously a human rights lawyer is facing this kind of humiliation, and it is a natural consequence of the Moon Jae-in administration’s misdeeds. Are they planning to pass along the disgrace of being an ‘underdeveloped country on human rights’ to the next administration after shaking the roots of national security?”
