Minister of Foreign Affairs Eui-yong Eui-yong (from left) and Defense Minister Seo Wook held a joint press conference at the reception of the Korea-US Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministers together with US Secretary of State Tony Blincoln (second from left) and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin’s at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 18th. I’m doing it. Photo Joint Coverage Group
Foreign Minister Eui-yong Eui and Defense Minister Seo Wook held a ‘2+2 meeting’ with U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blincoln and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin on the 18th and released a joint statement. Ministers of the two countries said in a statement that “the ROK-US alliance has reaffirmed that it is the core axis of peace, security and prosperity in the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific region.” On the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles, they agreed that it is a “completely coordinated strategy toward North Korea”. Aiming at China, he also emphasized his willingness to “oppose all actions that undermine and destabilize the international order based on norms.”
However, unlike the restrained expression of the joint statement, the United States directly discussed the North Korean human rights issue in bilateral talks the day before. “The authoritarian regime in North Korea is consistently and systematically and extensively abusing its own people,” and that “we must demand fundamental rights and freedoms against those who oppress them” is not wrong. The problem is that North Korea has responded sensitively to these complaints as internal intervention, and the current government has also tried not to stimulate North Korea if possible, such as absent from the UN resolution for human rights in North Korea.
North Korea condemned the ROK-US joint training through talks for the second day, and showed an attitude that the US should first withdraw its hostile policy to talk. It is said that the US policy toward North Korea is still under review, but if North Korea’s human rights are not neglected or the pressure is placed on North Korea, it may be difficult to resume negotiations from the beginning. It should be borne in mind that both North America and North America can commit the right to recreate the situation of’strategic patience’ in the past by putting only principle first.
As the Korean government wishing to resume the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, we must do our best to avoid this situation. It may be more difficult now, when there is no event called the PyeongChang Olympics, which is on the verge of reconciliation, and there are no protruding negotiators like Trump. At least, in order to continue the achievements so far, it is necessary to somehow squeeze the momentum for inter-Korean dialogue and to closely engage in the establishment of US policy toward North Korea.
It is a diplomatic task that is difficult to understand how to respond to the US strategy to build a siege of China and how to respond to the US ordering cooperation between the US and Japan. Immediately before, in the US-Japan joint statement,’China’ was mentioned three times, but the result of the talks on the visit to Korea was different because there was no direct discussion. It is said that there was no discussion of participation in the’Quad’ that China is watching. However, it will be difficult to avoid the US public checks with the’democratic coalition’. Considering China’s ambition for regional leadership, it is necessary to solidarity in consideration of national interests on a case-by-case basis.
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