Yoon urges China to take steps to deter NK threats

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a lunch meeting with reporters at a garden in the presidential office compound in Yongsan District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

President Yoon Suk Yeol called on China to take steps to deal with North Korea's nuclear threats, in response to Beijing's criticism of the Washington Declaration, a statement issued by Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden agreeing to upgrade the bilateral security alliance to a nuclear-based extended deterrence.

“If China wants to raise objections to and criticism directed at us for upgrading the security cooperation between Seoul and Washington to a nuclear-based extended deterrence, it should at least make efforts to reduce nuclear threats (by North Korea) or abide by international law regarding United Nations Security Council sanctions against the North's nuclear threats,” Yoon said during an unscheduled luncheon with reporters, Tuesday.

“Isn't the U.N. resolution an important part of international law? How can they tell us what to do when they are not participating in sanctions at all? We have no choice,” he added.

Yoon's comments came amid mounting criticism by Chinese state media of the strengthened extended deterrence, which Yoon hailed as the top achievement of his summit with Biden last week. In response to North Korea's escalating provocations, the two leaders agreed in Washington, D.C. to bolster the U.S.' extended deterrence, including nuclear weapons, while South Korea will have a say in deciding how those military assets will be used.

“Bringing U.S. nuclear power into the (Korean) Peninsula will inevitably create strong stimuli in North Korea and further exacerbate the security dilemma on the Korean Peninsula,” China's Global Times wrote in its editorial.

Citing Chinese experts, the newspaper also wrote, “Deploying U.S. nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula is an extremely dangerous and provocative act toward China, Russia and North Korea. And that Washington and Seoul will face strategic level retaliation which could spark another nuclear crisis in the region.”

China has been blocking U.N. actions against North Korea at recent U.N. Security Council meetings, claiming joint military drills by the U.S. and South Korea are threatening North Korea, while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening Pyongyang's nuclear and missile ambitions.

The luncheon with reporters took place as Yoon is set to mark his first anniversary in office on May 10. He said a year has passed while being encouraged and criticized, and that he plans to look back on the past year to adjust which aspects need more changes.

“I plan to look back on how our country and society have changed, how much more lively, warm, and hopeful they have become for future generations, how much more just and fair our society has become, and how much more secure our national security and society's safety have become,” he said. “And then I will accelerate the pace of change where it has been slow in the past year, and for some areas I will make adjustments to the direction of those changes.”