South Korea’s new leader offers nuclear weapons deal to North
YOON SUK Yeol has taken office as South Korea’s new president with a vow to pursue a negotiated settlement of North Korea’s threatening nuclear programme – and an offer of “an audacious plan” to improve Pyongyang’s economy if it abandons its nuclear weapons.
Mr Yoon had promised a harder stance on North Korea during his campaign but avoided tough words during his inaugural speech amid growing worries that the North is preparing for its first nuclear bomb test in nearly five years. North Korea has rejected similar past overtures by some of Mr Yoon’s predecessors that link incentives to progress in its denuclearisation.
“While North Korea’s nuclear weapon programs are a threat, not only to our security but also to north-east Asia, the door to dialogue will remain open so that we can peacefully resolve this threat,” Mr Yoon told a crowd gathered outside parliament in Seoul.
“If North Korea genuinely embarks on a process to complete denuclearisation, we are prepared to work with the international community to present an audacious plan that will vastly strengthen North Korea’s economy and improve the quality of life for its people.”
Mr Yoon also addressed South Korea’s growing economic problems, saying decaying job markets and a widening rich-poor gap are brewing a democratic crisis by stoking “internal strife and discord” and fuelling a spread of “anti-intellectualism” as people lose their sense of community and belonging.
He said he will spur economic growth to heal the deep political divide and income equalities.
North Korea’s advancing nuclear programme is a security challenge for Mr Yoon, who won the March 9 election on a promise to strengthen South Korea’s 70-year military alliance with the United States and build up its own missile capability to neutralise North Korean threats.
In recent months, North Korea has test-launched a spate of nuclear-capable missiles that could target South Korea, Japan and the mainland United States.
Pyongyang appears to be trying to rattle Mr Yoon’s government while modernising its weapons arsenals and pressuring the Biden administration into relaxing sanctions on it.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently warned that his nuclear weapons will not be confined to their primary mission of deterring war if his national interests are threatened.
In a policy briefing earlier yesterday, South Korea’s military chief Won In-Choul told Mr Yoon in a video conference that North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear test if Mr Kim decides to do so.
Mr Yoon then ordered military commanders to maintain firm readiness, saying that “the security situation on the Korean Peninsula is very grave”.
Other issues in the foreign policy and domestic challenges facing Mr Yoon are a US-China rivalry and strained ties with Japan over history and trade disputes.
South Korea is also bracing for the fallout of Russia’s war on Ukraine in global energy markets.
Chung Jin-young, a professor at Kyung Hee University, said South Korea must accept that it cannot force North Korea to denuclearise or ease the US-China standoff. He said South Korea must instead focus on strengthening its defence capability and the US alliance.