"New South Korean President an Upgrade for U.S., Japan"
Author
Janne Pak
Date
2022-03-16 00:14
(3-15-2022) by: John Gizzi(White House Correspondent, Newsmax.)
"New South Korean President an Upgrade for US, Japan"
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly Library in Seoul, South Korea, on March 10, 2022. (Lee Young-ho/Sipa via AP Images)
Days after Yoon Seok-yeol won a "squeaker" of an election as president of South Korea, sources in Washington agreed that the conservative hopeful and former chief prosecutor for his country would now move its relations closer to the U.S. and Japan.
Most significantly, Yoon's stand on hard-line Communist North Korea is the polar opposite of outgoing President Moon Jae-in's.
Moon pursued engagement with North Korea's all-powerful ruler, Kim Jong Un, and was positive about reunification of the two Koreas. This led Gordon Chang, bestselling author and Far East expert, to conclude that "Moon wants to be the last president of South Korea."
In contrast, Yoon has vowed to "annihilate communism" and declared that "[i]f North Korea tries to fire a nuclear missile, it means that we are already in a state of war."
"The new conservative president in Seoul knows how to take care of security issues," Hideya Yamamoto, former Washington bureau chief for the Japanese news service Sankei Shimbun, told Newsmax, "So I expect our relationship with South Korea will be better than now at least. But it needs time."
Veteran South Korean White House correspondent Janne Pak agreed.
"Yoon will strengthen the South Korea-U.S. military alliance first," Pak told us, "In his first remarks as president-elect, he declared that he would take action against illegal and unreasonable North Korean provocations."
Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington who has lived in Japan, also believes Yoon will move South Korea closer to Japan.
"My sense is that this change in leadership in Seoul will enable a turn to more positive relations with Tokyo, especially important given the dangers of an increasingly coercive China," Sadler said.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
(Janne Pak, White House Correspondent)
A Professional female Journalist who has covered the Korean Peninsula Issues and Korea-U.S. relations for over 20 years, White House, Pentagon, State Department, Congress.
(Janne Pak, White House Correspondent)
