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The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

Park Jung-won

Need for common ground in diplomacy, national security

At the core of President Yoon Suk Yeol's diplomatic strategy is a shift away from strategic ambiguity toward values-based diplomacy. This is an inevitable choice imposed on South Korea by the current security environment defined by the new Sino-American Cold War and the worsening nuclear threat of North Korea. A dual structure of trilateral alliances between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan on the one hand, and North Korea, China and Russia on the other, has emerged in Northeast Asia over the issues of the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan.

2023-06-01 16:50

South Korea's fateful nuclear choice

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden held a summit at the White House on April 26, announcing the Washington Declaration, which calls for strengthening the U.S. commitment to extended deterrence.

2023-05-01 16:35

Dictators' distortions of international law

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a summit on March 21 after which they reaffirmed their solidarity, strongly criticizing the hypocrisy of the current U.S.-led rules-based international order. They argued that the world order should be a multipolar system in which each country's sovereignty is respected under international law. Xi may have wanted to look like a neutral mediator in the Russia-Ukraine war to the world, but he had no intention of mediating from the outset.

2023-04-06 16:59

No shortcuts on road to reunification

“Reunification can happen suddenly, so only when we are prepared can we realize it,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said while attending a policy briefing from the unification ministry on Jan. 27. His remarks caused a big stir for suggesting the possibility of the imminent collapse of the current North Korean regime.

2023-03-02 16:40

Possible nuclear armament for South Korea

President Yoon Suk Yeol said recently that if North Korea's nuclear threats continued to worsen, South Korea would need to consider redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea and possibly establish its own nuclear armament. He pointed out that South Korea has the scientific and technological capability to develop such weapons within a short timeframe.

2023-02-06 16:40

2023: South Korea's awakening

In 2023, Northeast Asia's path toward a new Cold War paradigm will become increasingly clear. China and Russia will refuse to impose sanctions on North Korea for any of its illegal activities that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Xi Jinping's consolidation of near-absolute power in China will signify the disappearance of a “friendly” check on North Korea's aggressive behavior.

2023-01-05 16:53

South Korea needs its own nuclear deterrent

On Nov. 18, North Korea succeeded in test-firing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-17. If shot at a normal angle, the entire United States mainland would be within range. South Korea and the U.S. issued a limited response. With little possibility of deterring North Korea from its recent aggressive moves, the U.S. and South Korea conducted joint aerial drills and announced a strengthening of their joint defense posture.

2022-12-01 16:59

Putin's path to self-destruction

With each day's passing, it becomes increasingly obvious that Russia can never win its war with Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has caused the death or injury of over 100,000 young Russians and has spent nearly $70 billion in the execution of this unjust war. The notion that Russia held tight control over global energy and grain markets has also proved to be a fiction. Much of the world is ever more united in condemning Russia, and even China is quietly trying to distance itself from the mire Russia has created.

2022-10-06 15:44

The intractable Taiwan problem

The current heightened security tensions between the United States and China sparked by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan suggests that the Taiwan issue has entered a critical phase. One of the detonators in this regard is the new Taiwan Policy Act, a bipartisan bill submitted before the U.S. Congress in June.

2022-09-01 16:10

What went wrong with forced repatriations of North Korean fishermen?

When news emerged in November 2019 that two North Korean fishermen, who had been detained by South Korea after crossing repeatedly into South Korean waters and had confessed to murdering their fellow crewmembers, were forcibly repatriated by the Moon Jae-in administration after five days, a number of scholars, media and international human rights experts raised the alarm about the case's legality.

2022-08-04 16:41

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