There will be no war on Korean Peninsula, vows President Moon

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said yesterday that his American counterpart, Mr Donald Trump, had agreed to seek Seoul’s consent before taking any action on Pyongyang, including a military strike, assuring his people that there would be no war on the Korean Peninsula.

“No matter what options the United States and President Trump want to use, they have promised to have full consultation with South Korea and get our consent in advance,” Mr Moon said in a nationally televised news conference that marks his first 100 days in office.

“This is a firm agreement between South Korea and the United States. The people can be assured that there will be no war.”

Mr Moon also said that America had agreed with South Korea that the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes should be resolved through sanctions and pressure, and eventually through dialogue.

Mr Trump’s recent rhetoric on North Korea, including a promise to bring “fire and fury” to the reclusive nation if it continues to threaten the US with nuclear missiles, has alarmed many people in South Korea.

On Tuesday, Mr Moon said that unilateral American military action against the North would be intolerable.

Mr Moon said war would lay waste to the prosperous economy that South Koreans have built since then.

“Never again can we lose all we have in another war,” he stressed. “I will prevent war, whatever it takes to do so.”

Mr Moon said he thought Mr Trump’s combative recent statements were meant to “demonstrate his resolve and put pressure on North Korea”.

“I don’t think he necessarily made them with an intent to realise a military action,” the South Korean president observed. “On this, there is sufficient communication and agreement being made between South Korea and the United States.”

Mr Moon, an advocate of dialogue with North Korea, said there was “no fundamental difference” between Washington and Seoul about using strong pressure and sanctions, like the kind approved by the United Nations Security Council this month, to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table.

Mr Moon said that he was willing to dispatch a special envoy to Pyongyang to discuss improving ties between the Koreas, but not before North Korea stops carrying out provocations like missile tests, adding that a “red line” will be crossed should Pyongyang launch another intercontinental ballistic missile again and weaponise it with a nuclear warhead.

Meanwhile, the top US military officer said yesterday that Washington and Seoul will go ahead with joint military drills next week, resisting pressure from North Korea and its ally China to halt the contentious exercises.

General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the exercises were “not currently on the table as part of the negotiation at any level”.

“My advice to our leadership is that we not dial back our exercises. The exercises are very important to maintaining the ability of the alliance to defend itself,” Gen Dunford told reporters in Beijing after meeting his Chinese counterparts.

“As long as the threat in North Korea exists, we need to maintain a high state of readiness to respond to that threat,” he said.

Asked to respond to the criticism that China’s “dual suspension” proposal to halt the US military drills with South Korea and the North’s missile tests made a false equivalence between the two, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said it was the most realistic and achievable solution.

“To ease the tense situation created by tit-for-tat escalations, to halt this vicious cycle, there is a need to put aside the dispute over who goes first and who goes second,” she said at a regular briefing.

Annual military drills involving tens of thousands of US and South Korean troops are due to begin on Monday, and North Korea views such exercises as preparations to invade it. AGENCIES