HANKYOREH

Moon Chung-in, professor emeritus at Yonsei University, writes in an editorial column for the Hankyoreh concerning his stance toward President Moon Jae-in’s foreign policies. Read more.

“Time moves quickly. The Moon Jae-in administration has just a year and five months now left in its term. The past three years and seven months have been a rollercoaster. From the crisis year of 2017, we created a year of hope in 2018, only to see a deep chill descend on the peninsula again when the North Korea-US summit in Hanoi broke down in February 2019. There are no easy exits in sight. The situation has been reflected in domestic and overseas critiques of the Moon administration’s foreign policy, which have continued to intensify.

The most prominent of these has been the argument from some Korean media outlets that Seoul’s foreign relations have been a failure. It’s difficult to agree. It is true that the Moon administration has yet to achieve the goals it initially set out in terms of denuclearizing the peninsula and establishing a peace regime. But there should also be no need to point out that neither of those things can be accomplished in a short time.”

Image: JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images.