Moon Jae-in, the new president of South Korea, campaigned on renewing dialogue with North Korea and adopting a less confrontational stance than his impeached predecessor, Park Geun-hye.
He also clearly gave the impression he would be less confrontational than the United States has been of late. However, on Wednesday President Moon said, “there is a high possibility of a military conflict” with North Korea.
“North Korea launched a missile four days ago and claims to have succeeded in launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile,” said Moon, speaking at the South Korean Defense Ministry. “Launching ballistic missiles is a serious provocation that violates UN Security Council resolutions, as well as being a serious challenge to global peace and stability. We will never tolerate such North Korean provocations and nuclear threats.”
He promised to “sternly deal with the North, together with the international community.”
Moon made his comments hours after his government restated its desire to resume dialogue with North Korea and three days after North Korea’s latest provocative missile test. Reuters notes that the test was detected by the up-and-running components of the THAAD missile shield, which North Korea and its patron China strongly oppose, in part because its sensory systems are so powerful. READ MORE
