New S. Korean President Facing Immediate Challenges from Trump: US Analyst

“For starters, he defeated 12 presidential candidates which was rather large and it reminds me about Trump in some ways except that he is not a lunatic and he actually is a liberal peace-loving reformist type of president,” Alexander Azadgan, a multi-awarded professor of Strategic Global Management and International Political Economy, said in an interview with the Tasnim News Agency.

“However, he has a lot on his plate; President Moon Jae-in faces immediate challenges with Trump who lacks tact, diplomacy, even-handedness,” he added.

“President Moon Jae-in has to deal with China that has his own complexity because of the DPRK's relationship with China; he has to deal with the Japanese; he has to deal with the North Koreans, themselves; so he is balancing a very tight rope,” the expert noted.

He further highlighted the challenges facing the new South Korean president and said, “So far, the DPRK has tested five nuclear tests and the sixth one, they are threatening it, as well as many ballistic missile launches; but why do they do this? This behavior, we believe, is triggered by Washington's provocative military exercises nearby, not to mention the Trump's ugly imperialist bully tactic, which, as you are aware, is being practiced around the world.”

Azadgan further pointed to the reason behind Moon’s conciliatory approach to North Korea and said, “This Washington-DPRK saber-rattling has made so many South Koreans worried; that is why they (South Koreans) are choosing a peace-settlement-negotiation approach than anything else.”

“President Moon Jae-in is coming to Washington; he is scheduled to coming to Washington to soothe the nerves of our first mentally-ill president Donald Trump and we will have to see where that goes,” he said.

The American professor added that the South Koreans are more concerned about Donald Trump doing something “reckless and totally foolish” than Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea.

“It is apparent to everyone now that President Trump is not a balanced individual. His behavior has been outrageous and a source of shame and embarrassment for the overwhelming majority of Americans; His threats of force against the North Koreans or Syrians or even the Iranians exhibit the total deficit of intelligence,” he noted.

“As you are also aware, Trump has visited Saudi Arabia and Israel and in Saudi Arabia, he has proposed or started proposing a new NATO confederation arrangement for all these Arab Middle Eastern countries. This is a completely new phenomenon; so Mr. Trump, you know, is pushing many people's buttons with these so-called new policies, which are nothing but agitations, divide-and-conquer, geo-sectarianism…”

“So President Moon Jae-in, on the other hand, seems like a genuine peace advocate announcing that he would negotiate with the Americans, the Chinese, the Japanese and even visit Pyongyang if the conditions are right,” Azadgan, who is also a regular contributor with Russia’s Katehon think-tank, said.

Moon did mention “flying straight to Washington if necessary” and this is happening within the next few days signaling a continual close alliance with the US, which is something that really bothers and irritates and triggers the North Koreans, he added.

“We have to understand this is a conflict that goes back to the late 1940s; we have not had peace between North and South Korea for almost seventy years and this is a huge stone on the side of both the North Koreans and the South Koreans and the US was responsible for all of this back in the late 1940s right after World War II ended.”

“There has been a continual state of war, a perpetual state of war and you have these border skirmishes and then every time you have a military exercise, the North Koreans go nuts and every time you have the US or the South Koreans testing missiles, the North Korean see that as an existential threat,” he noted.

“It is clear that President Moon and the South Koreans have now concluded that the strategy of concentration has failed; this is a direct contradiction of Trump’s bullying policy.

“President Moon Jae-in is clearly signaling that he wants to talk with DPRK but the South Koreans’ testing of the American THAD anti-missile system remains very controversial especially with China; this caused and imposed the economic sanction by Beijing against Seoul.”

“President Moon Jae-in’s hardest challenge is to remind Washington and especially the belligerent Mr. Trump that there is a new president in charge in South Korea and that diplomacy and negotiation is in charge in South Korea and that diplomacy is the norm not the exception, when it comes to dealing with its neighbor via the Chinese or the Japanese or DPRK and what seems to be the new trigger-happy man in charge in Washington, Donald Trump,” the analyst concluded. 

Moon was sworn in on May 10. The South’s 19th president — the son of refugees from North Korea — during his campaign advocated for a combination of negotiations and economic cooperation alongside military and security measures in dealing with the North. His advocacy of engagement with North Korea contrasts with the approach of the United States, South Korea's main ally, which is seeking to step up pressure on Pyongyang through threatening it militarily. In his first speech as president, he said he would immediately address security tensions that have raised fears of war on the Korean Peninsula.