The Marmot’s Hole

Speaking to newly promoted lieutenant generals this morning, President Lee defended comments by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Kim Tae-young, saying that Kim’s talk of preemptive strikes on North Korean nuclear facilities was in response to a lawmaker’s question, and hence natural. He said Kim’s comments carried no other meaning (other than, I’d suppose, that Seoul intended to whack North Korea in the event of an emergency), and that it was “undesirable” for the North to raise tensions over them.

He also said that since his inauguration, North Korea had been raising tensions, but he expected no further deterioration in the situation. In fact, he said, from the perspective that the North and South should talk honestly with one another, what was needed was not “strategic” dialogue aimed at each other, but rather substantive dialogue in which the two sides opened their hearts to one another.

You know, I have to say, going on record as saying that you didn’t expect things to get worse is almost like inviting North Korea to do something.

According to Yonhap, Lee’s comments are interpreted as an expression of the government’s intent not to get caught up in North Korea recent offensive, as well as a call for the North to formulate a new intra-Korean relationship appropriate to the new environment.

In particularly, Lee said his administration wanted to have sincere dialogue with the North concerning intra-Korean issues, but for this to happen, North Korea, too, had to change the way in which it has done things till now.

He explained he wasn’t asking just the North to change, but rather than both North and South should engage in dialogue that matched global trends. Only if this happened would dialogue benefit one another.

He added that through dialogue, North and South should boost cooperation with one another.

(English Yonhap story here)