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Warmbier’s death and time to join America’s anger

Posted June. 21, 2017 08:32,   

Updated June. 21, 2017 08:48

한국어

Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was released in a coma after being detained by North Korea, died on Monday, six days after his release. U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement, “Otto’s fate deepens my Administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of the regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency.” Americans believe that Warmbier died as a result of North Korea’s cruel treatments such as torture. It is imaginable how much angry Americans at the Kim Jung Un regime would be as it sent a young man home in a coma and made him die.

 

This is an extension of North Korea’s favorite "hostage diplomacy." It is the most uncivilized brutality against human rights used to achieve what it wants by taking hostage of an innocent person. It should be known clear what it did to Warmbier. It was a right thing and timely that President Moon Jae-in sent a telegram of condolence to Warmbier’s family. However, we do not know at all about six South Korean detainees in North Korea. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, an international human rights expert, should ask for international cooperation to improve human rights conditions in North Korea.  

Warmbier’s case suddenly stopped movements for a dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang. The Trump administration, which tried to use diplomatic measures for its North Korea policy, is now more likely to choose a military action on the back of Americans who want retaliation against the North. It is a serious warning and a show of force that the U.S. unusually unveiled the deployment of two B-1B supersonic bombers dubbed the swan of death over the Korean Peninsula. If President Moon insists on dialogue with North Korea in this situation, he might have be at odds with U.S. President Trump even in the first meeting.

 

A high ranking official of the presidential office said on Tuesday, “It (Warmbier’s death) is not such an issue that we can say it has an impact on our North Korea policy or not.” Our concern is that the new administration might threaten the Korea-U.S. alliance, the bastion of our security, as it insists on reconciliation between the two Koreas. The presidential office does not seem to intend to replace Moon Jung-in, the controversial presidential advisor for foreign affairs. The leader of the ruling party is just assisting the advisor, without a single word criticizing North Korea.  

National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong is not playing a role as a security control tower m, and a non-expert in North Korea’s nuclear issues was nominated to the deputy chief of the office, which used to serve as a chief of foreign affairs and security office. Korea is far from “playing a leading role in diplomacy over North Korea’s nuclear issue” as long as it is with amateurs in foreign affairs and security who have an unrealistic fantasy over North Korea, not to mention not having an aligned view with the U.S. in the run-up to the Korea-U.S. summit.

 



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