U.S. and S. Korea relations at risk in election

Front-runner seeks less hawkish course with North Korea

Relations with the U.S. hang in the balance when South Koreans head to the polls at a tumultuous political time to elect a new president Tuesday.

Human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in, 64, the candidate of the left-leaning Democratic Party of Korea, leads polls by a large margin over his nearest competitor, conservative Hong Joon-pyo.

Moon’s stances, particularly over relations with North Korea, could open a rift with the U.S., in contrast to former president, Park Geun-hye, whose impeachment over corruption charges in March triggered the election.

Moon has been critical of the U.S. deployment of an anti-ballistic missile-defense system known as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) in South Korea, a military move Park had endorsed. The U.S. began deploying parts of THAAD in late April on an abandoned golf course outside of Seoul and announced it was operational earlier this week.

Moon argued that the U.S. should have waited for a new president to make the final decision to install the $1 billion system, which the Pentagon apparently rushed for fear Moon might block it if elected.

“We express strong regret over the THAAD (installation),” Park Kwang-on, public relations chief of Moon’s election campaign, said at a news briefing April 26.

Moon’s conservative critics fear he will try to revive the “Sunshine Policy” of 1998-2008, when liberal administrations actively engaged North Korea but ultimately failed to stop the isolated communist regime from developing a stockpile of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

President Trump rattled U.S.South Korea relations in a recent interview when he said he wanted South Korea to pay for the cost of THAAD. “We’re going to protect them,” Trump said. “But they should pay for that.”

Trump also said he planned to renegotiate or scrap the freetrade pact between the U.S. and South Korea, calling it a “horrible” deal.