Ballistic missile test marks return to provocations ahead of presidential election
While the international community and conservative presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch, Seoul’s leftist presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung called the missile launch a part of our “everyday life,” without mentioning its illegality and threatening nature.
North Korea’s state news agency said Monday that the country’s test launch on Sunday was for the development of a reconnaissance satellite system.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not specify what kind of missile was used in the launch, but the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday that the projectile “presumed to be a ballistic missile” launched into the East Sea at 7:52 a.m. Sunday. The missile flew some 300 kilometers (186 miles) with an altitude reaching 620 kilometers.
This is the North’s eighth missile test since the start of the year and comes 10 days before the South’s presidential election. Its last test was on January 30, when it test-fired the Hwasong-12, an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).
Under resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council, North Korea is banned from conducting any ballistic missile tests, including satellite launches, which use the similar technology.
On the same day that North Korea launched its eighth missile of the year, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate from the ruling Democratic Party (DP), said that the tension on the Korean Peninsula is rising due to North Korea’s missile launches. However, he argued that, “this is actually a normal part of everyday life.”
Lee then tried to link Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential candidate from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), with shamanism.
“We shouldn’t be praying for such things do not occur,” Lee said. “This is not time to pray or use the shamanic spell somewhere, but the time to maintain strong defense capability, while developing the economy.”
Leftists in South Korea have been arguing that Yoon and his wife take advice from shamans, while Yoon and the PPP call the allegation completely untrue.
“We are the world’s sixth-biggest power when it comes to the military and tenth biggest country economically,” Lee said. “North Korea’s GDP is even less than our defense budget and we also have the alliance with the United States. If the leader does what the individual has to do correctly, there will be no concern at all. I will take care of our national security and make the Korean Peninsula a place with no war.”
Yoon Seok-youl wrote on his Facebook on Monday criticizing Lee’s comments by saying that North Korea’s missile launches are a part of our everyday life.
“We should maintain vigilance and regard North Korea’s provocations as ‘emergency’ and ‘abnormal.’” Yoon said.
“The South Korean government still has not been able to call North Korea’s provocations as provocations, and Lee Jae-myung even said yesterday that this is an ordinary thing that happens in everyday life.”
He then mentioned that North Korea’s test launch yesterday violated UN resolutions 1718 and 1874, which ban all North Korea’s activities using ballistic missile technologies. “We strongly condemn North Korea’s provocation with all citizens.”
Yoon also pointed out a North Korean state-run news agency’s announcement that Pyongyang tested a missile in order to develop a reconnaissance satellite system. “There is a higher chance that North Korea might test another intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM] under the pretext of a satellite launch. It seems a matter of time before North Korea breaks the moratorium [on nuclear and ICBM tests].”
“This DP government just cannot call provocations as provocations, and this is the true face of the activist regime [who argue that they were involved in the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s],” Yoon said. “What are these people doing, seriously?”
The presidential Blue House, in fact, used phrases such as “deeply regret,” and “deeply concerned” without using the word “condemn” once again. In a statement released Sunday after a National Security Council meeting, the Blue House said the participants “pointed out during the meeting that launching a ballistic missile at a time when the world is working toward resolving the Ukraine war is never desirable for peace and stability in the world or in the Korean Peninsula and its region.”
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State told the Voice of America on Sunday that it condemns the North’s ballistic missile launch.
“The United States condemns the DPRK’s ballistic missile launch,” the spokesperson said. “This launch, like the other launches earlier this year, is a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, and demonstrates the threat the DPRK’s illicit weapons of mass destruction and missile programs pose to the DPRK’s neighbors and the region as a whole.”
The spokesperson added that “We stand with the international community to call on the DPRK to abide by Security Council resolutions, refrain from further provocations, and engage in sustained and substantive dialogue. Our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.”
Meanwhile, as Yoon and Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate from the centrist People’s Party, appeared to fail to agree on unification with just 9 days till the election, the latest polls show that it will be a close race.
According to pollster Realmeter on Monday, Yoon’s approval rating was 46.1 percent and Lee received 41 percent. The gap between the two is within the margin of error of 5.1 percentage points. They were followed by Ahn with 7.9 percent and Shim Sang-jung, from the radical leftist Justice Party, with 2.5 percent.
Another poll by the Korea Society Opinion Institute released on the same day showed that the race is closer. It showed that Yoon was leading Lee by 45 percent to 43.2 percent. Ahn and Shim recorded 5.9 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. These figures were based on the survey conducted through an automatic response system.
However, according to the poll by the same institution through phone interviews, Lee led Yoon by 43.8 percent to 36.1 percent. Ahn recorded 7.3 percent and Shim received 3.4 percent.
The conservative party has lost the last presidential election and a few other major elections conducted in the past decade as it fail to unify with Ahn. During the 2017 presidential election, Moon Jae-in from the DP received 41.08 percent. The conservative and moderate parties were divided and three of them ran for the presidency. Hong Joon-pyo from the main conservative party received 24.03 percent, Ahn received 21.41 percent, and Yoo Seung-min, a moderate candidate who left the conservative party, received 6.76 percent. Shim also ran in that election and received 6.17 percent. At that time many conservative commentators mentioned that Hong or Ahn could have beaten Moon if they were able to unify.
Many conservative figures and religious leaders are calling on Yoon and Ahn to unify to change the administration, but the two seem to disagree about the details of an agreement. Even if Ahn decides to unify with Yoon or abandon his candidacy, his name will still be on the ballot as the National Election Commission (NEC) finished its printing of ballot papers on Monday.
