Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
Park, Carter hard on North Korea
Defense Minister Han Min-koo gives U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter a tour of the wreckage of the frigate Cheonan, torpedoed by North Korea on March 26, 2010, at the Second Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Carter asked the ministry to visit it in order to pay tribute to 46 sailors who were killed in its sinking. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye, Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye told U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Friday that no rewards should be given to North Korea for its provocations.
The visiting top U.S. defense official consented to Park during his courtesy visit to Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office said in a briefing.
"Despite the apparent results of investigations by the international community, the North has denied responsibility for its torpedoing of the frigate Cheonan," Park said.
"We should not tolerate the North's vicious cycle of creating tension rewarded with economic aid."
Carter said that it is vital for Seoul and Washington to adhere to principles that do not reward the North's bad behavior, Cheong Wa Dae said.
Park also said that a condition-based transition of wartime operational control and a solid ROK-U.S. alliance is the best strategy to deter the North.
He added that a deeper level of trust from allies like Korea is the secret to the success of the United States’ Asia initiative and the strong ROK-U.S. alliance contributes to the Korean Peninsula maintaining peace unlike in Yemen and Afghanistan.
During the meeting, they also concurred on the need to boost bilateral cooperation regarding cyber security, citing evolving North Korean cyber threats.
Later in the day, Carter said that Washington is not ready to discuss the possible deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula because the program is still at the production stage.
“THAAD wasn’t on the agenda today,” he told a joint news conference after a 50-minute talk with his South Korean counterpart, Han Min-koo, at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul. “The reason for that is that we are not at a point yet in that program.
“This is a program that is in production in the U.S. We are not at the point yet to determine where it might be suitably deployed in the future.”
In terms of the timing of the discussion, the Pentagon chief called it a “programmatic decision.”
“We will have to see how the production goes, and what other training and deployment possibilities there are for THAAD,” he said. “So we are not at a point yet to begin any discussions with anyone around the world about where THAAD batteries in production are now going.”
The talks between defense chiefs of the two countries were held on the second day of Carter’s three-day visit to South Korea. Before the talks, he paid a courtesy call on President Park Geun-hye. This is his first visit since he took the office in February.
The Pentagon chief’s clarification of THAAD came after talk of potential deployment, with the recognition by U.S. Forces Korea of its survey of locations where the system could be deployed on the peninsula.
THAAD has emerged as a hot-button diplomatic issue here as China and Russia have expressed their opposition to it, saying the deployment could damage the regional security balance.
Carter also tried to settle his controversial remarks made during a visit to Japan before he came to Seoul, saying his country has a lot of respect for historical legacy issues in this region.
“In speaking of the future, I was referring to the agreements to share information in the future among the three militaries, which I think has a great promise for the security of all of us,” he said. “I was not referring to the past. We certainly hope for healing and reconciliation with respect to these issues. It is not for the U.S. to interpose itself between the parties here.”
On Wednesday, Carter told the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun that potential gains from trilateral cooperation between Korea, the U.S. and Japan are more important than the tensions of the past.
The remark raised eyebrows in South Korea as it was construed as him siding with Tokyo regarding Imperial Japan’s wartime misdeeds, including its use of Korean women as sex slaves in frontline military brothels.
For his part, Han said the two countries will continue to work together to better deter nuclear and ballistic missile threats from the communist state.
“We agreed on the importance of the trilateral information sharing between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo,” Han said.
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