North Korea Fired 7 Missiles... Moon Government's Self-Praise of 5 Years of Diplomatic Achievements

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Yoo In-ho and Lee Ji-eun] The Blue House held an emergency National Security Council (NSC) meeting to discuss measures regarding the rapidly escalating Ukraine crisis, while announcing the diplomatic achievements of the past five years under the Moon Jae-in administration, which were filled with self-praise.

On the morning of the 22nd, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conducted a comprehensive review of the follow-up results of summit diplomacy over the past five years at the Cabinet meeting presided over by President Moon. It stated, "Since its launch in 2017, 141 summit diplomacy meetings have elevated our status as a global leading nation." The government also evaluated that through close cooperation between South Korea and the United States, it laid the foundation for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace, while engaging in confident cooperative diplomacy with the four neighboring powers: the United States, China, Japan, and Russia.

However, this assessment of the Moon administration’s summit diplomacy is criticized for losing credibility amid adverse factors such as the war crisis caused by the confrontation between the United States and Russia over the recent Ukraine situation and a series of military provocations by North Korea. The instability of both the Korean Peninsula and international sentiment makes it somewhat unreasonable to claim that the Moon administration’s summit diplomacy has yielded significant results.

Cho Young-ki, chairman of the Advanced Unification Research Association at the Korea Peninsula Advancement Foundation, said, "In the early days of the government, there were positive processes such as inter-Korean and North Korea-US summits, but after the failure of the Hanoi summit, a submissive North Korea policy was continued." He added, "As we enter a new Cold War era, value-centered diplomacy is important, but the South Korea-US alliance has also been continuously weakened."

Accordingly, experts are raising their voices that the government should pay close attention to summit diplomacy with major surrounding powers such as the United States and Russia, especially as it must decide whether to join sanctions against Russia considering the South Korea-US alliance. Following the United States’ sanctions, the European Union (EU) also condemned Russia’s actions as violations of international law and announced a tough response, raising concerns in the international community that war is imminent.

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