Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)

President Moon Jae-in urges improved ties with Pyongyang over confrontation.

Earlier he said “I’m pro-US, but now South Korea should adopt diplomacy in which it can discuss a US request and say no to the Americans."

He wants his government taking the lead on policies affecting the peninsula, mostly concerned about preventing war, devastating for Seoul and Pyongyang if launched. On Thursday, ahead of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, he expressed willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “any time, any place” - despite the DPRK’s nuclear program and July 4 ballistic missile test.

He proposed both North and South resumption of family reunions and mutual cooperation on the 2018 winter Olympic games - to be held in Pyeonchang, South Korea.

He supports responsible diplomacy and dialogue over confrontation to resolve differences between both sides.

Trump threatening “some (unspecified) pretty severe things” to confront Pyongyang’s “very, very bad behavior” risks possible war on the peninsula.

Moon favors a responsible approach, saying “I am ready to meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea at any time at any place, if the conditions are met and if it will provide an opportunity to transform the tension and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.”

“I hope that North Korea will not cross the bridge of no return. Whether it will come out to the forum for dialogue, or whether it will kick away this opportunity of dialogue that has been made with difficulty is only a decision that North Korea can make.”

Moon called US policy toward Pyongyang flawed and dangerous. “More desirable in international relations is to pursue a multifaceted approach” instead of hostile rhetoric and confrontational policies, he stressed.

He was a key architect of Seoul’s earlier soft hand Sunshine Policy toward the DPRK under President Kim Dae-jung. It was a high-point in North/South relations, including June 2000 and October 2007 summits in Pyongyang, along with other positive bilateral agreements.

An uneasy armistice still persists since hostilities ended in July 1953, a longstanding untenable situation Moon hopes to resolve by negotiating a peace treaty - a historic move if achieved.

Kim refuses to abandon the DPRK’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs unless Washington ends its hostility toward his country.

Not likely. America needs enemies to justify its appalling imperial agenda - at war at all times, currently in multiple theaters, always against sovereign independent nations threatening no one.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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