The People Power Party urged the government to shift its diplomatic and security strategy over North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's day trip to China, saying that "if we are waiting for North Korea to extend its hand someday, that is not diplomacy but an irresponsible security gamble that entrusts the nation's fate to North Korean goodwill while turning away from the harsh realities of international affairs."
Choi Eun-suk, the party's chief floor spokesperson, made the remarks in a commentary on the 25th, assessing that "North Korea is broadening its diplomatic options, strengthening military cooperation with Russia while expanding economic and trade cooperation with China."
"The interests of North Korea, China and Russia do not all align, but the fact that they are widening the scope of strategic cooperation in a direction that counters the South Korea-U.S. alliance is by no means a light matter," Choi said.
"Yet the presidential office has offered only the boilerplate position that it is 'closely monitoring related developments' regarding Kim Jong-un's abrupt visit to China," Choi said. "North Korea is swiftly carving out diplomatic avenues, so how long will the Republic of Korea stand by with its hands behind its back and merely watch?"
"Now is the time to closely analyze the impact that the alignment of North Korea, China and Russia will have on security on the Korean Peninsula, the sanctions regime against North Korea and the economic order in Northeast Asia, and to prepare a preemptive response strategy," he said. "But strategy is hardly visible in the Lee Jae-myung administration's diplomacy."
He continued his criticism of the government's North Korea policy stance. "If one mistakes anti-Americanism for independent diplomacy and believes that one-sided conciliation toward North Korea will bring peace, that is a perilous misjudgment," Choi said. "True independent diplomacy comes not from distancing oneself from allies but from using a firm alliance as leverage to broaden the Republic of Korea's strategic options."
Citing North Korea's continued hard-line posture toward the South, including its definition of inter-Korean relations as "two hostile states," he said: "The opening of the new Yalu River bridge and Kim Jong-un's visit to China mean the road toward the Republic of Korea has been severed while the road toward China has been thrown wide open. This is the harsh reality we now face."
"Peace is not obtained as the price of submission. It is defended through firm deterrence and a cool-headed grasp of reality," he added. "Now is the time to set the South Korea-U.S. alliance straight, strengthen South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation and present to the people a substantive diplomatic and security strategy to respond to the movements of North Korea, China and Russia."
The Korean Central News Agency reported on the 25th that Kim visited the Museum to Commemorate the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea in Dandong, Liaoning Province, the previous day, around the 76th anniversary of Chinese People's Volunteer Army's entry into the Korean War. On the Chinese side, Wang Huning, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the fourth-ranking member of the leadership, greeted Kim. Wang Yi, director of the Communist Party's Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission and foreign minister, Liu Haixing, head of the party's International Liaison Department, and Ma Zhaoxu, executive vice minister of commerce, also accompanied him.