SEOUL – President Yoon Suk Yeol said today South Korea has no choice but to rely on United States’ extended deterrence as Beijing does not enforce UN sanctions on North Korea “at all”.
Yoon made the remark after making a surprise appearance at a luncheon for reporters in the presidential compound, according to Yonhap news agency.
The luncheon was organised as part of a press tour of Yongsan Children’s Garden, a park adjacent to the compound, which will open to the public on Thursday.
Yoon was asked by a reporter if he anticipated the degree of China’s complaints about his agreement with US President Joe Biden last week to introduce new measures to strengthen US extended deterrence toward South Korea, or Washington’s commitment to mobilising all of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its ally.
“If they want to take issue with us and criticise us for adopting the Washington Declaration and upgrading our security cooperation to one that is nuclear-based, they should reduce the nuclear threat or at least abide by international law and stick to UN Security Council sanctions against the nuclear threat,” Yonhap reported Yoon as saying, referring to the declaration outlining the new extended deterrence measures.
“If they don’t take part at all in the sanctions against violations of UN Security Council resolutions, what do they want us to do? We’re left with no choice,” he said.
North Korea is under a raft of UN sanctions over its testing of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in violation of Security Council resolutions. – Bernama, May 2, 2023
