Key to the national security and foreign affairs thinking of South Korea’s policymaking elites today is a hard-boiled and absolutely determined desire to keep the peace on the Korean Peninsula by “bending over backwards” to accommodate Pyongyang, if it proves necessary. About the only thing that’s off the diplomatic table, as far as Seoul is concerned, is sitting back and allowing North Korea to re-unify the Peninsula by force. Seoul wants no outbreak of “Korean War 2.0”
The Seoul administration of Moon-Jae-In quickly grabbed at North Korea’s offer to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics. If news reports are to be believed, it appears that Seoul was fearful that its favorable answer to Pyongyang’s offer would be spoiled by President Donald Trump with a twitter outburst before South Korea could respond. Seoul therefore wasted no time.
The reasoning behind Moon Jae-In’s “peace policy” is very simple: “There must never be a repeat of the catastrophe that saw the Korean Peninsula reduced to a smoking ruin.”
