Moon’s Election and the Security of the Korean Peninsula. EC-CSID Policy Brief Issue 2017/01 • May 2017

Simón, Luis (2017) Moon’s Election and the Security of the Korean Peninsula. EC-CSID Policy Brief Issue 2017/01 • May 2017. [Policy Paper]

PDF - Published Version Download (285Kb)

Abstract

On 10 May 2017, Moon Jae-in, a liberal human rights lawyer, was elected as the 12th President of the Republic of Korea (ROK). Moon’s election puts an end to a period of instability in South Korean politics, unleashed by the political scandal which broke out in Autumn 2016 and led to the impeachment of conservative President Park Geun-hye. Moon has promised dialogue with North Korea and a warmer relationship with China1 . He has also raised questions about the ‘comfort women’ agreement reached between South Korea and Japan in 2015, painstakingly negotiated by the Park administration and widely hailed as a stepping stone for greater cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo2 . Moreover, Moon has criticized his country’s excessive dependence on and deference to the United States, and has been especially critical towards the ‘hasty’ deployment of a new U.S. missile defense system in South Korea: Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)3 .

Actions (login required)