"US Has No Objection to End-of-War Declaration? Tae Young-ho Refutes Ambassador Lee Soo-hyuk's Remarks"

Tae Young-ho, a member of the People Power Party, attended the 1st meeting of the "Fact-Finding Task Force on North Korea's Atrocities of Shooting and Burning Our Citizens" held at the National Assembly on the 26th of last month.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yeon-ju] On the 12th, Ambassador Lee Soo-hyuk to the United States stated that "the U.S. also has no disagreement regarding the declaration of the end of the Korean War," which was criticized by Tae Young-ho, a member of the People Power Party, as "completely untrue and a blatant distortion."

On the 13th, Tae posted on his Facebook, saying, "Due to Ambassador Lee's remarks, reports continue to circulate that the U.S. supports the declaration of the end of the war promoted by the Moon Jae-in administration."

Regarding this, Tae stated, "In the U.S., Democratic Representative Ro Khanna introduced a 'Resolution Urging the Official End of the Korean War' in February last year, but the number of co-sponsors who agreed with it did not exceed about 9% of the 535 members of both houses of Congress. Currently, in the U.S. Congress, the argument that North Korea's denuclearization should be prioritized over the declaration of the end of the war is overwhelmingly dominant."

He added, "Ambassador Lee could not have been unaware of these congressional circumstances. Knowing this, he selectively cited a very small portion of U.S. opinions to back up the government's push for the declaration of the end of the war," expressing concern that "the public will misunderstand both the U.S. and the declaration of the end of the war."

Earlier, at the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee's national audit on the 12th, Ambassador Lee said, "Because it can have a very important political meaning in denuclearization, the U.S. empathizes with it and is waiting for North Korea's response," adding, "Some figures in Seoul say the U.S. opposes the declaration of the end of the war, but that is not true. The U.S. also has an attachment to the declaration of the end of the war."

Ambassador Lee emphasized, "Based on contacts with senior U.S. officials," that "if North Korea agrees, the U.S. has no objections."

Regarding this, Tae pointed out, "More importantly, the resolution introduced by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna was based on President Moon Jae-in's September 2018 UN General Assembly speech, which emphasized 'North Korea's pre-denuclearization measures followed by the declaration of the end of the war,'" adding, "This is far from and has a different intention than the current government's claim of 'declaration of the end of the war first, then denuclearization.'"

He further analyzed, "The government's 'declaration of the end of the war first, then denuclearization' is merely a means to buy time for North Korea," and "It enables sanctions relief without denuclearization by North Korea."

He continued, "North Korea's nuclear capability was already fully developed by 2017," criticizing, "When the government first proposed the declaration of the end of the war, they said they would pursue denuclearization and the declaration of the end of the war together, but now they want to put the declaration of the end of the war before denuclearization. The subject and object have been reversed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.