South Korean President Moon Jae-in criticized former President Trump’s attempts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. He told the New York Times that he was “freaking out” with North Korea and “failing to get it through.”
Why it matters: Moon, now in his senior year in office, called denuclearization a “matter of survival” for South Korea and urged President Biden to end negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after a standstill of nearly two years. to resume.
What they say: “I hope that Biden will go down as a historic president who has made substantial and irreversible progress towards full denuclearization and peace settlement in the Korean peninsula,” Moon told the Times.
- “He beat around it and failed to pull it through,” he said of Trump. “The most important starting point for both governments is to have the will for a dialogue and to enter into dialogue at an early stage.”
- Moon also called on the US to work with China on North Korea and other issues, warning that if “tensions between the United States and China increase, North Korea can take advantage and take advantage of it”.
Context: The talks between the US and North Korea and the unprecedented involvement between Trump and Kim quickly intensified after the two countries failed to reach a substantial agreement on denuclearization and sanctions.
- After Biden took office, the North Korean quickly rejected its attempts to resume negotiations, warning the US not to “cause a stench” if “it wants to sleep in peace for the next four years.”
- North Korea also conducted its first major weapons test since Biden took office in March by firing two ballistic missiles into the Baltic Sea.
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