US VP Pence 'the undertaker'
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks with a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force officer as he inspects PAC-3 missile interceptors with Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Wednesday. Reuters/Yonhap
By Oh Young-jin
Progressive people close to President Moon Jae-in have heaped criticism on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.
Rep. Lee Seok-hyun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said on Twitter: “Mike Pence is trying to make the festival a funeral.” It is a reference to Pence’s plan to meet North Korean defectors and visit the site where the ROK Navy’s frigate Cheonan is displayed after it was torpedoed by North Korea.
Pence is coming to the PyeongChang Winter Games, reconfirming the hard-line U.S. stance on the North.
Lee, a six-term lawmaker of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs and unification committee, accused Abe of using the PyeongChang Games to push his country’s agenda.
“Abe’s demand for the resumption of ROK-U.S. military drills is an act of intervening in Korea’s internal affairs,” he said.
Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, regarded as a member of a group of mentors for President Moon, said on a radio show: “It’s the U.S.’s fault that Abe acts unreasonably.” Jeong served under late President Kim Dae-jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for inter-Korean detente.
“He (Abe) tries to raise the tension on the Korean Peninsula in order to create momentum for the revision of his country’s pacifist constitution so its military will be able to engage in reckless adventurism,” Jeong said.
Lee Jong-seok, unification minister under late President Roh Moo-hyun, who was Moon’s mentor, said in his podcast: “North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is in the process of making his country normal. The reason why he moved the military parade to the eve of the PyeongChang Olympic opening is attributable to his sense of pragmatism.”