Yoo Seung-min: "President Yoon Must Secure Freedom to Engage in Economic Exchanges with China"

Former Lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, CBS Radio Interview
"I Was the First Politician to Advocate NATO-Style Nuclear Sharing"

As President Yoon Suk-yeol visits the United States in the capacity of a state guest, former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min emphasized, "The big principle this time is to gain the freedom to engage in economic exchanges with China."

Former lawmaker Yoo appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the 24th and said, "The U.S. asks us to join in containing China, yet Tesla invests in China, and the U.S. also conducts trade and investment well with China."

He stressed that "Currently, countries like South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan have China as their number one export and import partner," and that economic benefits must be secured at the Korea-U.S. summit. Yoo pointed out, "If the U.S. denies the freedom to trade and invest with China, that would be self-contradictory for the U.S. itself," adding, "Looking at the U.S. semiconductor support law, the CHIPS Act, it provides subsidies but includes provisions related to China."

He continued, "I hope our president clearly conveys to President Biden that this must be made clear. In return, we will actively invest in the U.S. and so on."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding President Yoon's statement on the Taiwan Strait, made in an interview with Reuters where he expressed "an absolute opposition to any change of the status quo by force," former lawmaker Yoo criticized, "Diplomatically, using the word 'absolute' means it actually cannot be absolute."

He also said, "(Chinese President) Xi Jinping, upon starting his third term at the 20th Party Congress, declared 'Taiwan unification will definitely happen' and 'we will not avoid the use of force.' This means China intends to invade Taiwan during Xi Jinping's tenure," adding, "This could trigger incidents in Taiwan and Northeast Asia, and then what should we do? We need to start considering how to handle relations with China from now on."

Yoo predicted that there could be retaliatory actions from the Chinese government related to President Yoon's remarks. He said, "China will not remain idle. There is a sufficient possibility of retaliation by China," and "China will make its choice after seeing how the Korea-U.S. summit goes."

Meanwhile, former lawmaker Yoo emphasized that the Korea-U.S. summit should secure a 'Korean-style nuclear sharing' arrangement regarding the North Korean nuclear issue. He also said the Korea-U.S. Atomic Energy Agreement should be revised to lay the foundation for South Korea's independent nuclear development.

He stated, "I was the first among politicians to advocate for THAAD deployment, missile defense, and NATO-style nuclear sharing," and added, "There can be progress in responding to North Korea's nuclear threat, but we must not accept mere words without actual nuclear deterrence."

He said, "The extended deterrence and regular deployment of strategic assets discussed between South Korea and the U.S. are no longer effective in deterring North Korea's nuclear threat," and "We must definitely secure a Korean-style NATO nuclear sharing with permanent redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons, and the core of that is nuclear weapons."

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