Conservative candidate calls Moon’s outreach to North a “complete failure”
Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), rolled out North Korean policies that are clearly different from those of the current Moon Jae-in administration and the ruling Democratic Party (DP) in a major speech on Monday. Though he left the door open to diplomacy, Yoon called the Moon administration’s so-called Korean Peninsula Peace Process a “complete failure.”
On January 24, Yoon held a press conference at the PPP’s headquarters and said that the “Yoon Seok-yeol administration will restore the inter-Korean relations.” He added that if North Korea makes active moves toward complete and irreversible denuclearization, he will prepare to sign a peace agreement and provide economic aid.
“North Korea is explicitly provoking us by advancing its nuclear capability while testing hypersonic missiles,” Yoon said. “The Moon Jae-in administration showed a servile attitude toward North Korea and made inter-Korean relations strange and damaged our people’s pride.” He added that the current administration is trying to defend North Korea by saying that we need to ease economic sanctions first even though Pyongyang continues to provoke us.
“The Yoon administration will restore inter-Korean relations and we will resolutely react to North Korea’s illegal and illogical acts,” he said. Then he emphasized that he will pursue peace through power policies.
“The alliance between South Korea and the United States is founded upon sharing blood, and I will restore the alliance that collapsed under the DP administration,” Yoon said.
He also argued that he will give substantial economic aid to North Korea once it decides to move toward denuclearization. “I will come up with a large-scale investment program by cooperating with international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank,” he said. When asked what he meant by North Korea making practical moves toward denuclearization, he answered, “Accepting full-scale inspection of its nuclear facilities.” He added that if North Korea accepts that, he will try to persuade the international community to participate in supporting Pyongyang economically.
Yoon also criticized the Moon administration’s peace process with North Korea, calling it a “show.”
“The leaders of countries should meet after reaching some preliminary agreements ahead of time. I think them meeting just to say ‘let’s make some deal after meeting first’ is not normal diplomacy but a show,” he said. “I am not going to put on a show.”
Yoon, however, said he will always leave the door open for talks. “I will establish liaison offices between the two Koreas and the United States in Panmunjom or Washington.”
Rep. Park Jin from the PPP who attended the press conference said that Yoon hired 30 experts as advisors and met six times on Tuesdays to come up with his blueprint for foreign policies.
The DP argued that Yoon’s plans are “contradictory to each other and inconsistent.” The party said Yoon is just spitting out whatever comes to his mouth.
“Yoon said that he can provide economic aid by lifting UN sanctions if North Korea makes practical moves toward denuclearization, but he also said that it is only possible when the North accepts nuclear inspection,” said Hwang Bang-yeol, a spokesperson for the DP’s election team. “He is technically saying that is possible after complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization [CVID] and he is trying to maintain the already failed ‘denuclearization first’ policy.”
Meanwhile, the North Korean propaganda outlet Tongil Voice called Yoon a “war maniac” on January 22 and argued that he should abandon his candidacy. The outlet mentioned Yoon’s previous comment that a preemptive strike is the only option to defend South Korea against North Korea’s hypersonic missile that the North said it acquired.
Yoon released a statement a day after the North Korean outlet’s attack. “North Korea and the DP has become one team and are falsely framing me as a war maniac,” he wrote on his Facebook. “It is an apparent intervention of North Korea in the election, and North Korea’s logic is the same as the ruling party’s argument.”
