On Wednesday, Moon Chung-in, a Korean academic and a key foreign policy adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, delivered an important policy speech in Seoul. Mostly, he expressed regret about the latest dispute between North and South and optimism that President Moon can bridge the differences so the two sides can move on.
News-wise, the most important nugget here is the Yonsei University professor’s contention that South Korea’s defense minister had requested that B-52s not be included in the air force exercises that are now taking place on the peninsula and have angered Pyongyang. If that’s true, it would mean that the bombers were deployed unilaterally by the Pentagon and US Forces Korea – a moot point now that they have been apparently withdrawn but raising questions about the “jointness” of the US-South Korean Combined Command structure.
Moon was responding to North Korea’s warning to Seoul and Washington that it may terminate negotiations with both Moon and Donald Trump in response to US-South Korean military exercises and John Bolton’s demands that North Korea accede to a Libya-style denuclearization agreement. He spoke at a forum organized by the Association of Peace and Economic Cooperation in Northeast Asia in the South Korean National Assembly.
DISPATCH KOREA obtained a translation of Moon’s speech from Simone Chun, a professor and activist with the Korea Peace Network and a member of the steering committee of the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea. She translated the speech as printed by an article in Chosun.com. As a way of introduction, Ms. Chun writes:
We can’t let John Bolton or any other hawks screw this opportunity up like before. A South Korean right-wing party last week sent one of their own, a National Assemblywoman, Na Gyong-won, to meet with Bolton. She delivered a personal letter requesting that the United States never give anything to North Korea before North Korea fully denuclearizes.
- It was going great until yesterday…I’m regretful about North Korea’s cancellation of scheduled inter-Korean high-level talks.
- South Korea’s Defense Minister requested that no B-52s be used during the joint military exercises.
- The two Koreas, especially South Korea, have? ?made enormous efforts and worked for diplomacy… it’s understandable if some feel dejected…
- President Moon and Kim Jong-un must communicate via the hotline prior to Moon’s summit with Trump on May 22.
- I am a strong optimist. President Moon has overcome more difficult challenges than this one and brought us to this far. I’m confident that President Moon would be able to handle the latest challenge as well.
- America’s idea of CVID includes erasing all knowledge that North Korean scientists have (there are 15,000).
- North Korea wants denuclearization step-by-step, through building confidence and trust with the United States.
- Whether North Korea’s approach would yield results by November, 2020 (Trump’s reelection) remains to be seen and is a sticking point as far as President Trump is concerned.
- Kim Jong-un never raised concerns about American troops in the south during the inter-Korean summit. This showed Kim’s pragmatism and strong will to produce results.
