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DP politician says South Korea must recognize North Korea as 'nuclear power'

Published: 21 Feb. 2025, 18:40

SEO JI-EUN
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Democratic Party (DP) Rep. Park Jie-won [JEON MIN-GYU]

Democratic Party (DP) Rep. Park Jie-won, former head of Korea's National Intelligence Service, said Thursday that South Korea should acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear state in order to establish a realistic pathway toward denuclearization, prompting sharp criticism from the conservative People Power Party (PPP) and distancing himself from his own faction.

Park proposed a three-stage approach to denuclearization during a National Assembly forum: recognizing North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, encouraging North Korea to rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and freezing and preventing nuclear proliferation through inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and, finally, securing the United States' guarantee of the North Korean regime, lifting economic sanctions and normalizing U.S.-North Korea relations — culminating in complete denuclearization.

“With North Korea’s nuclear capabilities becoming increasingly advanced, neither South Korea’s security nor international support can be sustained through irresponsible and unrealistic arguments like advocating for our own nuclear armament,” Rep. Park said during a speech in a National Assembly forum on Thursday.

Park also criticized the Korean government’s response to shifting U.S. policy.

“During the last U.S. presidential election, both the Republican and Democratic parties removed North Korea’s denuclearization from their official party platforms,” he said. “However, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration not only did not respond to this change, but failed to even properly recognize it.”

Referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent comment characterizing North Korea as a “nuclear power,” Rep. Park added that he saw a heightened possibility of a shift in U.S. policy toward Pyongyang.

The conservative People Power Party (PPP) strongly condemned Park’s proposal.

Chief spokesperson Shin Dong-wook called it an “anti-state argument” that “gives up on national security and speaks for the North Korean regime.”

“The moment we recognize North Korea [as a nuclear-armed state], Northeast Asia will fall into a nuclear domino effect, and South Korea will forever become a ‘nuclear hostage’ to the North,” Shin added.

The DP clarified that Park's views do not represent the party’s official stance.

DP chief spokesperson Cho Seung-rae said Park’s comments “seem to be his personal opinion” and had not been discussed with party leadership.

“The Trump administration’s terminology was not about granting North Korea the status of a nuclear-armed state, but rather acknowledging the reality of its nuclear capability,” Cho said.

Cho added that the party would carefully examine which category Park’s proposal falls into.

Despite the controversy, Cho reaffirmed that the DP's ultimate goal remains “the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]