Seoul needs a more constructive policy

BEIJING — The Republic of Korea willhave anewpresident after Tuesday’s election. Amid increasing tension on the Korean Peninsula, Seoul is more than ready for a positive leadership that underlines a return to the previous pro-peace policy toward the Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea.

Whoever the new leader will be, he or she should learn from the misjudgments of former president Park Geun-hye, whose term ended in disgrace over her corruption charges, andreflectonthe decision to let in the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, whichhasplaced national security in jeopardy and soured relations with major neighbors.

It is a relief to see the promise of Moon Jae-in, the frontrunner from the Democratic Party, to resume the “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with Pyongyang. The policy, pursued by his mentor and ex-president Roh Moo-hyun earlier this century, had once enabled the Seoul-Pyongyang rapprochement and secured regional peace and prosperity.

Besides improving the national economy, the top priority of the newpresident is to cool down current tensions on the peninsula with concrete measures, and draft a way out of the country’s diplomatic deadlock inNortheast Asia.

Over the past a few years, it has been a challenge for some politicians in Seoul to transcend myopia and immobilism, and put national security in a larger picture.

Instead of making the ROK a positive factor when it comes to promoting regional stability, the country’s conservative forces have acted otherwise.

Their preference to conduct annual military drills with the United States, which have carried an incremental note of intimidation against its northern neighbor, reinforced Pyongyang’s sense of insecurity, prompting more rhetoric and countermeasures from it.

Direct threat

As for the THAAD missile system, however valid Seoul’s reason to deploy it may sound, the system definitely poses a direct threat to China’s strategic interests and security.

Seoul has been paying the price — eroded mutual trust and a hampered prospect for economic cooperation — for stabbing Beijing in the back when China is trying to make dialogue possible.

Given all these challenges, the country deserves a president with strong leadership skills who will make the peninsula more, instead of less, secure and stable.

Seoul’s eagerness to defend its security has its reasons, but patience and vision count more when there is no quick or easy fix to the crisis.

It would be advisable that the next leader respond positively to China’s proposal to resume dialogue — Pyongyang suspends its nuclear program in exchange for the halt of US-ROK military exercises — something the previous ROK leaders have failed to do in the past 10 years.