Top leftist presidential candidate Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung announced on Sunday a very similar North Korea policy to Moon Jae-in’s failed outreach to Pyongyang.
He said that temporary relief of sanctions, or the so-called snapback approach, is necessary at this point. Lee is committed to persuade the international community to remove the United Nation Security Council sanctions restricting the resumption of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and developing infrastructure to connect inter-Korean railways and highways.
“The best way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue is to temporarily relieve sanctions and take phased and reciprocal actions,” he said. “The purpose of this approach is to revive sanctions if North Korea fails to follow through on their promise of denuclearization, while relieving sanctions in phases when North Korea follows through on its denuclearization commitment.”
Lee said, “I will propose this temporary relief in sanctions and phased action-for-action approach to the United States once its details are finalized, and I will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.”
“The stakeholder of the destiny of the Korean Peninsula is us,” he said. “The Moon Jae-in administration has led the [international movement] to solve the North Korean nuclear issue by putting Seoul in the ‘driver’s seat of the peninsula.’ I will inherit the administration’s policy and take a more proactive role as a mediator and troubleshooter.”
He argued that he will first work on proceeding with inter-Korean projects that are not banned under international sanctions, which include humanitarian aid. “We were successful in doing this at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, and the UNSC approved the removal of sanctions on a project supplying materials and equipment to help North Korea build greenhouses.” He argued that all this would lead to the establishment of a “Korean peace and economic system.”
On May 31, it was reported that the Gyeonggi government distributed a controversial brochure titled, “Manual to waive sanctions toward North Korea for Gyeonggi’s inter-Korean cooperation projects” to 61 regional governments in South Korea. The manual included ways to circumvent the UN sanctions, including ways to write applications for sanction exemptions and cases of exemptions being approved. It had details such as “the UN sanctions experts can continue to ask for further questions and explanations and, in that case, one needs to summarize that the project is essential for the North Korean people who are vulnerable.” South Korean conservatives criticized the Gyeonggi government, led by Lee Jae-myung, for trying to help the North Korean government and putting civil servants at risk of violating international sanctions.
Lee added that he will tell North Korea directly about South Korea’s stance if Pyongyang does something wrong, after mentioning that the North’s demolition of the Kaesong liaison office, which caused significant shock and disappointment.
He gave a vague stance on the alliance with the United States. “The United States is our only ally and we have a strategic cooperative relationship with China,” he said. “There is no reason to limit our relationships by choosing one or the other. Competent diplomacy is to make the United States and China choose to cooperate with us.”
Choe Jae-hyeong, former head of the Board of Audit and Inspection under the Moon administration and a key presidential candidate from the conservative People Power Party, wrote on his Facebook on Monday that Lee is trying to inherit the failed outreach policy of the Moon administration.
“Lee did not offer any resolution to protect our people from the biggest threat of North Korean nuclear weapons, but only laid out his plans to repeat the unrequited love toward Pyongyang as the Moon Jae-in administration did,” he said. Choe argued that North Korea should make preemptive moves toward denuclearization before the international community considers ways to relieve sanctions. “Lee is saying that relief in sanctions should come before that, and it shows how he lacks understanding of the North Korean situation.”
However, there is fatigue among conservative commentators that the key presidential candidates from the PPP are only attacking the Moon administration and leftist presidential candidates instead of laying out a specific agenda or alternatives to current policies.
Kim Byung-joon, former interim leader of the PPP, argued on Monday that, “The conservative presidential candidates have failed to lay out their own vision in governing the country and only focused on their anti-Moon Jae-in rhetoric.” He said there are many people who are not sure whether it will be helpful for the government going forward if the PPP wins in the next presidential election. “The presidential election is not something where winning means everything. Both conservatives and liberals are only focusing on winning the election, which is why they continue to attack others over moral issues instead of having serious debates on various agendas and policies.”
Lee is currently the leading candidate from his Democratic Party (DP). He has already announced various domestic policies that are often considered populist, including universal basic income, public housing for 1 million households, and providing money to every female teenager aged between 11 and 18 to buy sanitary pads. The public housing plan aims to provide homes around areas with good transportation systems to low and middle-income class so that they can live there for 30 years while paying for lower rent than private housing. Both candidates from Lee’s party and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) argued that the plan is unrealistic when considering the South Korean housing prices and the limited area to develop new housing in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Meanwhile, the top PPP candidate, former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl took back his lead against all competing presidential hopefuls from the DP, based on an August 23 opinion poll from Realmeter. The poll showed that support for Yoon was at 30.4 percent, who was followed by Gov. Lee with 27.7 percent and former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon with 14.1 percent. The figure for Yoon rose 8.4 percentage points from a month ago and it rose 3.9 percentage points for Gov. Lee. In a two-way race, Yoon received 42.6 percent support and Gov. Lee received 39.4 percent.
