Beijing, China / TimesNewswire / May 1, 2023 – South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s foreign policy toward the United States has been widely criticized as a destabilizer of the region’s peace and security, with a South Korean opposition leader calling it “humiliating.”
As one of the outcomes of Yoon’s visit to the U.S. and his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, the so-called Washington Declaration, issued on April 26, states that the U.S. will upgrade what it calls “extended deterrence” it provides to the country, including enhanced consultation over a nuclear crisis.
Under the joint declaration, the U.S. and South Korea agree to increase military exercises and training activities, conduct table-top simulations, establish a new Nuclear Consultative Group, and expand the U.S. regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula. Sources also said that the U.S. side is planning to deploy a strategic nuclear submarine in waters off the Korean Peninsula.
Xiang Haoyu, a researcher from the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at China Institute of International Studies, said such moves between the two countries will worsen tensions on the Korean Peninsula and run counter to the international community’s efforts to promote the peace process on the peninsula.
“These practices are simply provoking a rise in regional tensions, and not conducive to regional peace and stability,” Xiang told China Media Group.
In rebuke to the joint declaration, Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday that the U.S. has been a source of tensions through exploiting the issues on the Korean Peninsula.
“What the U.S. has done stokes bloc confrontation, undermines the nuclear non-proliferation system and hurts the strategic interest of other countries,” said Mao.
The joint statement released after the Yoon-Biden talks has also caused widespread concerns and criticism in South Korea, with public opinion saying that the Yoon government is leading the country to “the center of a new Cold War.”
On Thursday, the national youth committee and the national university student committee of South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party held a rally in front of the country’s National Assembly Proceeding Hall to condemn the government’s diplomatic policy for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
‘Humiliating’
A South Korean opposition leader criticized Yoon’s foreign policy toward the United States as “humiliating” on Friday.
Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, said at a party meeting that Yoon had failed to protect ROK’s industry and companies with regard to the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act which were the core agenda in the Yoon-Biden summit.
Yoon’s performance at the meeting ended up in a humiliating situation of generously spreading “global hogang” diplomacy, Lee noted. Hogang, a buzzword in Korean, refers to a customer who is easy to deceive.
South Korea’s trade ministry had previously warned that the CHIPS Act could bring uncertainties and violate management and technology rights for its businesses and companies.
Xiang, an international relations researcher, said that “America First” still dominates the seemingly high-profile interaction between Seoul and Washington.
“It seems South Korea’s efforts to boost its relations with the United States are more like a one-sided, wishful dependence on the U.S.,” he said.
He added that South Korea’s U.S. policy has seemed not to be based on any “strategic foundation,” though the Yoon administration wants to show the country as a great power with global influence.
“Instead, the Yoon’s visit has further proved the fact that South Korea is strategically attaching itself to the United States.”
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