by WorldTribune Staff, June 11, 2017
Seoul insiders and observers are suggesting that liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-In name his North Korea policy “Moonshine” in the spirit of former liberal leader Kim Dae-Jung’s “Sunshine” policy.
Both Koreas have political systems that assign unification of the divided country as the top priority. The Korean War which broke out in 1950 was paused by a truce in 1953 but has never ended.
Moon’s policy advisory panel has instructed Seoul’s Unification Ministry to come up with a name for the president’s liberal policy, “which would include key words of peace and economy based on his pledges made on his campaign trail,” government sources said, according to a June 11 report by Yonhap.
South Korea has had a special name to symbolize a leader’s North Korea policy since Kim Dae-Jung’s “Sunshine” policy.
Kim’s liberal successor Roh Moo-Hyun’s policy was dubbed the policy on “peace and prosperity.”
Conservative President Lee Myung-Bak pursued the so-called “denuclearization, opening and 3,000 dollars” strategy which called for Seoul to help the North attain a per capita income of U.S. $3,000 if the communist country gave up its nuclear weapons.
President Park Geun-Hye, also a conservative, called her policy the “Korean Peninsula Trust-Building Process”, which called for building mutual trust to pave the way for unification.
“The ministry is mulling over a term that can comprehensively and precisely reflect Moon’s North Korea policy,” a ministry official said.
The new president said that he will seek to solve North Korea’s nuclear issue and pursue economic cooperation by building new “economic belts with North Korea,” the report said.
Meanwhile, Moon called for a meeting of the National Security Council on June 8 to discuss possible measures against North Korea’s repeated rocket and missile launches, the presidential office said.
The meeting follows North Korea’s launch of what appeared to be short-range surface-to-ship cruise missiles earlier on June 8.
The missiles, which had a range of around 200 kilometers, marked the fifth rocket launches by North since Moon assumed office on May 10.
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