Heading for a collision course?
Published: 01 Feb. 2018, 21:26
If Trump’s decision to abandon Victor Cha’s nomination to be the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea was because of the Georgetown professor’s disagreement with the hawks in the White House to enact a “bloody-nose” strategy on North Korea, the Korean Peninsula could well be headed into a disaster. This is despite Cha getting approval from the Moon Jae-in administration.
In the meantime, the Moon administration’s overly low-profile — and pitifully submissive — approach toward North Korea, particularly ahead of the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, would definitely be seen as “pandering to the recalcitrant state” by hardliners in Washington,
The liberal South Korean government will most likely be put on a “destined” collision course in the coming months as Trump will further push North Korean leader Kim Jong-un into a corner through annual joint drills.
These drills were delayed until after the Games following Seoul’s solicitations for inter-Korean talks to hopefully pave a way for dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.
After carefully weighing whether it would violate U.S. unilateral sanctions on North Korea, the Trump administration made a last-minute approval on Wednesday of a South Korean chartered flight to North Korea for a joint ski training on the sidelines during the Olympics. This testifies to widening schisms in the decades-old alliance between South Korea and the United States since the two administrations started last year.
I hope that the Moon Jae-in administration navigates these tough waters ahead very carefully.
*A Seoul resident
Kang Hiok
In the meantime, the Moon administration’s overly low-profile — and pitifully submissive — approach toward North Korea, particularly ahead of the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, would definitely be seen as “pandering to the recalcitrant state” by hardliners in Washington,
The liberal South Korean government will most likely be put on a “destined” collision course in the coming months as Trump will further push North Korean leader Kim Jong-un into a corner through annual joint drills.
These drills were delayed until after the Games following Seoul’s solicitations for inter-Korean talks to hopefully pave a way for dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.
After carefully weighing whether it would violate U.S. unilateral sanctions on North Korea, the Trump administration made a last-minute approval on Wednesday of a South Korean chartered flight to North Korea for a joint ski training on the sidelines during the Olympics. This testifies to widening schisms in the decades-old alliance between South Korea and the United States since the two administrations started last year.
I hope that the Moon Jae-in administration navigates these tough waters ahead very carefully.
*A Seoul resident
Kang Hiok
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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