President Moon Jae-in saluted caskets containing the remains of South Korean soldiers killed during the Korean War during a ceremony Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of the conflict.
Photo: yonhap/ShutterstockSEOUL—South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday warned North Korea against conducting any armed attack on Seoul following several weeks of rising tensions that have dragged inter-Korean relations to their lowest point in years.
Mr. Moon’s stern remarks were unusually strong for a president who has dedicated the last three years to improving relations with Pyongyang. During that period, he engaged North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in three summits and in 2018 facilitated the first summit between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.
“We want peace. But we will respond resolutely to anyone who threatens our people’s safety or lives,” he said, without naming North Korea’s Mr. Kim.
Mr. Moon spoke at a live televised event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War. Over one million South Koreans died during the conflict. Around 37,000 Americans died while serving in Korea at the time.
“We have defense capabilities strong enough to deny any provocation, from any direction,” Mr. Moon said, drawing applause from a crowd that included U.S. officials and surviving South Korean veterans of the conflict.
South Korean honor guards Thursday carried caskets containing the remains of South Korean soldiers killed inside what now is North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Photo: -/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesHis remarks were among the few warnings he has issued against Pyongyang, and were reminiscent of comments in 2017 when the Kim regime was accelerating development of nuclear weapons and compelled President Trump to threaten to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea.
That year, Pyongyang conducted the most missile tests in its history, according to figures compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, and carried out its sixth atomic bomb test.
North Korea is now estimated to have up to 40 nuclear warheads, from 30 last year, according to SIPRI, a Stockholm think tank that released estimates this month.
South Korea’s Moon government recently shifted its tone toward the North after the Kim regime threatened to carry out military action against Seoul and dramatically destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office on its territory that had served as the South’s de facto embassy to the North.
Though the North announced earlier this week that Mr. Kim had suspended military “action plans” against the South, the country issued statements Thursday vowing to strengthen its nuclear arsenal and accusing Washington of levying “nuclear threats and blackmail” against it.
The South Korean leader’s comments also come amid uneasy ties between Seoul and Washington.
President Trump has largely ignored North Korea’s resumption of missile tests since his last summit with Mr. Kim in February 2019 collapsed without a deal on how to proceed with dismantling the Kim regime’s nuclear arms.
Mr. Trump has instead focused more on pressing South Korea to pay many more times than it does now for hosting a permanent U.S. military garrison of 28,500 troops—a thorny issue that has soured U.S.-South Korean ties.
Seoul’s repeated requests for the U.S. to exempt several South Korean investment projects in the North from sanctions that restrict trade with the Kim regime further annoyed a Washington keen on enforcing the penalties until full denuclearization.
South Korea’s ambivalence about joining Washington’s anti-China drive, and the recently published memoir of Mr. Trump’s ex-national security adviser John Bolton, have also hurt relations. Mr. Bolton in the book accuses Mr. Moon of having “schizophrenic” thoughts about nuclear talks with North Korea.
Thursday’s anniversary commemoration of the Korean War served as a welcome distraction to U.S.-Korea relations, experts said, as it allowed both countries to set aside their disputes and focus on gestures of solidarity.
“But it’s a mere distraction, not a catalyst for resetting the alliance,” said Soo Kim, a policy analyst at the Rand Corporation and a former analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.
“The revelations from Bolton’s book, if true, create potential for even more significant rifts in the alliance,” she said, referring to Mr. Bolton’s criticism of President Moon’s stances on the stalled denuclearization negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.
President Moon Jae-in bestows the Order of Military Merit to a family member of a fallen Korean War soldier during Thursday’s ceremony.
Photo: yonhap/ShutterstockAt the Korean War ceremony Thursday, Mr. Moon, accompanied by surviving South Korean combat veterans, welcomed the return of the remains of 147 South Korean soldiers that the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA, had sent from its Hawaii facilities the previous day.
Mr. Trump also sent a video message: “The 70th anniversary of the Korean War. I just want to say, for all of the brave men and women who fought to keep communism out, thank you, we salute you. You are a very special people.”
Leaders from the countries that also sent troops to South Korea’s aid during the war sent similar messages, including Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau and Scott Morrison, the prime ministers of the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, respectively.
At the ceremony, South Korean officials also presented the remains of six American soldiers discovered earlier this decade inside their country. They will be sent to the U.S. on Friday. Seoul officials said they didn’t know if the remains had been identified, while U.S. officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
The Pentagon’s DPAA last week said 7,578 Americans remain unaccounted for from the conflict.
The Korean War “was a worthwhile endeavor,” said Bernard “Ben” Farnan, an 89-year-old Korean War veteran who lives in Glen Cove, N.Y. “To see the advancements and the efforts they’ve made over the years,” he said Thursday, speaking of South Korea.
In an interview last year, Mr. Farnan wept as he recalled hearing the last moans of Harold Goldsmith, a 22-year-old West Virginian and fellow member of Mr. Farnan’s unit, the Third Reconnaissance Company of the Third Infantry Division.
“He kept calling out for his mother,” Mr. Farnan said. “I want to tell him that he didn’t die in vain.”
Write to Andrew Jeong at andrew.jeong@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
World - Latest - Google News
June 26, 2020 at 01:43AM
https://ift.tt/2YwVajm
South Korean President Issues Warning to North Korea - The Wall Street Journal
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2SeTG7d
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "South Korean President Issues Warning to North Korea - The Wall Street Journal"
Post a Comment