By Kim Tae-gyu
NEW YORK — President Park Geun-hye said Sunday that the current North Korean threat is not serious enough to affect the South Korean economy.
“You worry a lot about North Korea,” President Park told a group of Korean Americans in New York, the first stop on her U.S. trip. “But rest assured, we maintain a watertight security status and are coordinating with the United States and China so as to deal with the North’s challenge in a cool-headed and resolute manner.”
Park’s remarks were aimed at addressing the “Korea discount” aggravated by the North’s latest brinkmanship to raise tensions on the peninsula that is reportedly having some foreign investors reconsidering their plans for Korea.
“Foreigners are continuing to buy our bonds,” Park said. “Our economy is strong enough not to be shaken by the current level of North Korean threats,” she said.
The President visited New York before moving to Washington today for a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama and delivering a speech to a joint session of Congress.
She also talked about Japan, which has been more assertive toward its neighbors without showing remorse about its atrocities committed against them.
“It marks the first time in eight years for me to visit New York since 2005. Back then, the North’s nuclear development was the foremost issue and Japan also had a surprise press conference on Dokdo,” Park said.
“Eight years later, we are experiencing almost the same environment, and I feel pressure not to cause concerns (to Koreans in the U.S.) by dealing with the situation in the appropriate manner.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently refreshed his country’s sovereignty claim over Korea’s easternmost islands of Dokdo.
Recently, North Korea removed its 53,000 workers from the inter-Korean joint industrial complex in Gaeseong, prompting the South to reciprocate by withdrawing its workers there.
Park also reiterated her “Korean Peninsula Trust Process” policy aimed at getting the isolated North to stop its brinkmanship and return to the negotiation table.
“If Pyongyang gives up its provocations and takes the right direction that is recognized by the international community, the two Koreas will chalk up a new way of development based on the Korean Peninsula Trust Process.”
Park said that foreigners continue to buy stocks in the Seoul bourse to show that overseas investors are not affected by the North Korean threats.
She also praised the efforts of ethnic Koreans in the United States, saying that they have contributed the most in enabling the 60-year-old alliance between the two countries that dates back to the Korean War (1950-53) to endure.