Yoon warns against threat of 'fake peace' with North

Defense

Published: 04 Oct. 2023, 18:55

Yoon warns against threat of 'fake peace' with North

President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee, front row center, pose for a commemorative photo during a luncheon marking the 60th anniversary since the first Korean nurses and miners were dispatched to Germany, aiding South Korea's economic development, at Grand Walkerhill Hotel in eastern Seoul Wednesday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed Wednesday that notions of "fake peace" with North Korea pose a serious challenge to security and democracy.

"Despite repeated warnings from the international community over the past several decades, North Korea has been upgrading its nuclear and missile capabilities and blatantly threatened to use nuclear weapons," Yoon said in a ceremony commemorating the 71st anniversary of the founding of the Korean Veterans Association at Olympic Hall in Olympic Park in southeastern Seoul.

Yoon warned against a "peace theory" prevalent in the preceding administration, which he accused of calling for the pre-emptive lifting of UN Security Council's sanctions against Pyongyang, the disbanding of the United Nations Command, a declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War and a reduction of reconnaissance assets against the North.

He said advocates of this theory claimed that only a cessation of joint exercises between the United States and South Korea would guarantee peace, an apparent reference to the previous Moon Jae-in administration's scaling down of Seoul-Washington military drills in the spirit of denuclearization negotiations in 2018.

"Our security is being threatened both internally and externally," Yoon said. "Fake news and instigation are threatening this country's democracy."

The Korean Veterans Association, currently operating under the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, was established in 1952 in the midst of the Korean War, in the South's provisional wartime capital of Busan.

The ceremony, following the long Chuseok holiday, was attended by some 5,000 people, including leaders of the association, Veterans Minister Park Min-shik, lawmakers and senior presidential officials.

"In order to deter North Korea's nuclear threats and provocations, our government upgraded the South Korea-U.S. alliance to one that is nuclear-based and further strengthened security cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan," Yoon said.

He then pledged to defend people's safety by strengthening South Korea's capability to "immediately and overwhelmingly respond to any provocation by the enemy."

Yoon called to "create a Republic of Korea of freedom, peace, and prosperity together with a correct view of history, a responsible view of the nation and a clear view of security."

He was the first president to attend the ceremony for two consecutive years.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, front row center, poses for a commemorative photo during a ceremony marking the 71st anniversary of the founding of the Korean Veterans Association at Olympic Hall in Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, Wednesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Later Wednesday, Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee invited some 240 former miners, nurses and nursing assistants dispatched to Germany for a luncheon meeting to honor their contributions to the country's progress decades ago.

The event was held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first batch of Korean nurses and miners being dispatched to Germany and the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Germany.

"The sweat and dedication of all of you here have played a huge role in the process of Korea achieving remarkable growth and prosperity based on liberal democracy and a market economy, Yoon said.

He noted that in the 1960s and 1970s, South Korea achieved the so-called Miracle on the Han River "through foreign cash sent by some 20,000 miners and nurses sent to Germany, thousands of miles away, as seed money."

This marks the first time that a president has separately hosted workers dispatched to Germany for such a meeting.

Former President Moon Jae-in, in turn, said it is "time to join forces in peace again" as he marked the 16th anniversary of the Oct. 4 inter-Korean Joint Declaration signed by then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the 2007 inter-Korean summit.

"Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are increasing with the intensifying confrontation in the international order, and I am very worried because there is no end in sight and there is no effort for dialogue," Moon wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday morning.

He stressed that the Oct. 4 declaration envisioned "a grand ambition that embodies the hopes of our people and a concrete goal that can be fully achieved if South and North Korea have the will to implement it."

Moon said that there had been "a long gap and regression after that historic declaration," but "the people's wish for peace was revived" through his administration's April 27 Panmunjom Declaration and the Sept. 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration in 2018, "bringing us one step closer to that desired goal."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]