Can South Korea’s Leader Turn an Olympic Truce Into a Lasting Peace?
- 6 years ago
Can South Korea’s Leader Turn an Olympic Truce Into a Lasting Peace?
25, 2018
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, has worked hard to be a matchmaker in this month’s Winter Olympics, getting North
and South Korea to march together in the opening ceremony and tirelessly urging visiting dignitaries from the North and the United States to talk.
Conservatives in both South Korea and the United States fear
that anything less than the full resumption of the war games would only advance the North’s ultimate goal of ridding the peninsula of the American military presence, which they say the South needs for protection.
Mr. Kim seized on Mr. Moon’s peace overtures before the Olympics to send his sister, Kim Yo-jong, to the opening ceremony
and a large contingent of cheerleaders and athletes to the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Some Trump administration officials said the United States had to accept
that there was now a viable diplomatic channel between North and South Korea, and figure out how to use it for American goals.
Moon argued for a South Korean-brokered peace and for the United States-North Korea talks when he met
with President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who arrived to attend the Games’ closing ceremony.
The question, Mr. Delury said, is the extent to which the Trump administration is willing to let South Korea be a mediator with the North, especially as expectations in Washington have dwindled
that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, can persuade the North to disarm.
25, 2018
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, has worked hard to be a matchmaker in this month’s Winter Olympics, getting North
and South Korea to march together in the opening ceremony and tirelessly urging visiting dignitaries from the North and the United States to talk.
Conservatives in both South Korea and the United States fear
that anything less than the full resumption of the war games would only advance the North’s ultimate goal of ridding the peninsula of the American military presence, which they say the South needs for protection.
Mr. Kim seized on Mr. Moon’s peace overtures before the Olympics to send his sister, Kim Yo-jong, to the opening ceremony
and a large contingent of cheerleaders and athletes to the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Some Trump administration officials said the United States had to accept
that there was now a viable diplomatic channel between North and South Korea, and figure out how to use it for American goals.
Moon argued for a South Korean-brokered peace and for the United States-North Korea talks when he met
with President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who arrived to attend the Games’ closing ceremony.
The question, Mr. Delury said, is the extent to which the Trump administration is willing to let South Korea be a mediator with the North, especially as expectations in Washington have dwindled
that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, can persuade the North to disarm.