South Korea leader calls for talks as North fires missiles

SEOUL • Talks with North Korea should not be for political show but contribute to establishing peace, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said yesterday, just hours after the North test fired two cruise missiles into the sea.

Speaking at a wide-ranging news conference to mark his first 100 days in office, Mr Yoon made no mention of the launches, which were only publicly reported later by the South Korean military.

Mr Yoon repeated his calls for North Korea to end its nuclear weapons development and begin denuclearisation in exchange for "large-scale" economic aid, noting that he had called for a dialogue with Pyongyang since his campaign for office.

"Any dialogue between the leaders of the South and North, or negotiations between main working-level officials, should not be a political show, but should contribute to establishing substantive peace on the Korean peninsula and in north-east Asia," he said.

The comments were an apparent criticism of a series of summits involving his predecessor Moon Jae In, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and then United States President Donald Trump.

Despite those meetings, denuclearisation talks stalled in 2019. North Korea has said it will not trade away its self-defence, though it has called for an end to sanctions. It has been observed preparing for a possible nuclear test, which would be its first since 2017.

South Korea is not in a position to guarantee the North's security if it gives up its nuclear weapons, but Seoul does not want a forced regime change in North Korea, said Mr Yoon.

The North's recent missile tests and nuclear development have revived a debate over whether the South should pursue its own nuclear weapons.

Mr Yoon said he was committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and working with the US to boost its "extended deterrence" for South Korea. "The NPT should not be abandoned and I will adhere to that until the end," he said.

Facing falling poll numbers and controversies over his picks for top ministers, Mr Yoon was pressed by the media on a range of issues, including labour reform, housing shortages and recovery from recent floods.

Since Mr Yoon came to office in May, two strikes have cost industry more than US$1.6 billion (S$2.2 billion), according to labour ministry and shipbuilder estimates, although neither involved a government suppression before ending.

The President said he would always allow time for dialogue and compromise before suppressing an illegal strike. He also called for ending discrepancies between "workers who do the same job", such as between direct hires and contract workers.

He also touted major weapons sales, including a deal last month with Nato member Poland involving more than 1,600 tanks and howitzers, and nearly 50 fighter jets.

He declined, however, to say whether his government would change its policy of not directly providing lethal aid to Ukraine.

"While it's difficult to elaborate here on the issue of supplying military support, we will help the Ukrainian people recover freedom and rebuild the destroyed national assets swiftly," Mr Yoon said.

REUTERS