SEOUL: North Korea has been condemned internationally for conducting its most powerful nuclear test yet, but, across the border, South Korean President Moon Jae-In is also attracting flak for his policy of pursuing engagement with Pyongyang.
Rebuked by US President Donald Trump, Moon is facing growing calls at home to change course and take a tougher line against North Korea, even from his core support base of young liberals, according to hundreds of comments posted online.
Moon, who swept to power after winning a May 9 election, remains hugely popular but his policy of pursuing both pressure and dialogue with the North is now under scrutiny.
Trump was blunt about the situation facing South Korea, one of Washington’s biggest allies in Asia.
“South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they (North Korea) only understand one thing,” he said in a tweet on Sunday, after the nuclear test.
Within South Korea, doubts about the “Moonshine” policy of engaging the North have been growing in recent weeks because there has been no change in the pace of the North’s ballistic missile testing since Moon took office.
The North twice test-fired intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. Now, despite international warnings, it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday.
“You said you will not have dialogue with the North if the North conducts a nuclear test. Keep your word,” said a post on the Facebook page of the presidential Blue House from a user named Kim Bojoong.
Moon said during his campaign for the presidency that dialogue would be “impossible for quite some time” if the North were to go ahead with another nuclear test. — Reuters
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