ED Moon gets facts wrong

Candidates count on wishful-thinking on nuke issue solution

Presidential candidates displayed a weak grasp on a key national security issue _ how to solve North Korea’s nuclear brinkmanship_ during their televised debate Sunday night.

Frontrunner Moon Jae-in got the facts wrong and mixed his imagination with history when he said, “In the past we had come to an agreement to completely dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program through an inclusive solution reached by multilateral diplomacy.”

If the candidate of the largest Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) referred to the 1994 Agreed Framework, Moon should do some fact-checking because that agreement was signed by the United States and the North. So it is wrong to say “we” because it sounds as if South Korea had actively got involved in the process or was a signatory in the agreement. Then-President Kim Young-sam boycotted the process and later was sidelined, relegating Korea to a bystander that begged the U.S. to gain knowledge of the U.S.-North Korea meetings.

Moon’s argument for the use of multilateral diplomacy would only stand to reason when the bilateral Geneva Agreement deals with how to reward the North for its freeze _ the establishment of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) to supply the North with light water reactors and fuel oil. South Korea and Japan were members to pick up much of the tab to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Moon attacked two conservative presidents, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye _ for their “national security failure.” Then he said, “To dismantle the North’s nuclear programs, I would shift the inter-Korean relationship to inter-Korean peace and prosperity.” Ironically, Moon shares the goal of denuclearization with Lee and Park but the “carrot policy” he shares with liberal presidents, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, turned out to be as big a nonstarter as did the “stick policy” by the conservative presidents.

Moon’s rival, Ahn Cheol-soo, sounded just as naïve as when he suggested in a previous televised debate that he would use his school ties with U.S. President Donald Trump to prevent him from launching a pre-emptive strike against the North. Trump belongs to the 1968 class of the undergraduate Wharton School, while Ahn studied an executive MBA in 2005.

Ahn contradicted himself with two opposing statements. He said, “We should not let big powers decide on our fate.” Then, he said, “I would have a summit with the U.S. President to consolidate the ROK-U.S. alliance and persuade China to join international sanctions against the North.”

China has been participating in the North Korean sanctions with its intensity being strengthened after the summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Trump. One can wonder whether he is too busy to pay attention to the latest developments on the North.

Conservative Liberty Korea Party candidate Hong Joon-pyo turned out to be an alarmist when he said, “The Korean Peninsula is turning into a global tinderbox,” which to say the least is a dubious reason to support his claim that a leftist president would be a wrong choice to tide over this crisis.

Again, we hope that anyone who is elected will grow into the job of presidency and fast.