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A8 world news
Monday 14 august 2017
Citizens worried, but Seoul mum on Trump’s N. Korea threat
By FOSTER KLUG and KIM a word to Trump over an
TONG-HYUNG uncoordinated, excessive
Associated Press comment that threatens to
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — send the Korean Peninsula
When North Korea makes to the path of war.” Moon,
a threat, the government a liberal who favors en-
in Seoul usually vents its gagement with the North,
anger while South Koreans has kept mostly quiet over
mostly shrug off what can the past week. In a meet-
seem like a daily barrage ing with military officials
of hostility. President Don- Wednesday, he said that
ald Trump has introduced South Korea would need
a new wrinkle to this fa- to “slightly supplement”
miliar pattern. His recent its military readiness in the
Pyongyang-style threat face of threats from North
to unleash “fire and fury” Korean nuclear weapons
on North Korea has been and missiles.The daily Joon-
met with silence from the gAng Ilbo newspaper took
top levels of South Korea’s those comments as a sign
government — and worry, of Moon’s lack of urgen-
sometimes anger, from the cy while Washington and
country’s citizens. In this May 14, 2017, file photo, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, presides over a meeting Pyongyang trade “verbal
It highlights an interesting of the National Security Council at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea. bombs as if they are pre-
feature of South Korea, a Associated Press dicting a real war.”
strong U.S. ally, trading part- where there can seem to worry about Trump’s unpre- warning of “fire and fury” if “These are times of emer-
ner and fellow democracy be as much, maybe more, dictable style of leadership the North didn’t stop threat- gency, when the strategic
as there is about archrival ening the United States. balance of the Korean
North Korea. Many South South Korean citizens and Peninsula is entirely chang-
Koreans ignore Pyongyang the media have been less ing, and the expression
because they have lived shy about ripping into both ‘slightly supplement’ re-
with near-constant North Trump, for his threat, and flects an understanding of
Korean belligerence, and the government of Presi- the situation that is too lax,”
sometimes violence, since dent Moon Jae-in, for not the newspaper said in an
the Korean Peninsula was taking the U.S. president to editorial Thursday.
divided in 1945 and the task for evoking a poten- South Korea has long wor-
two countries fought a tial war that would likely ried about being sidelined
bloody, three-year war five result in tens of thousands in international diplomacy
years later. of Korean deaths. “Doesn’t meant to persuade the
The government in Seoul, the Moon Jae-in govern- North to abandon its nu-
however, is far from indiffer- ment have to say some- clear ambitions. The angst
ent to its northern neighbor. thing about Trump’s over- even has a name in Seoul:
When North Korea on Thurs- the-line comments?” Jang Korea Passing.
day repeated a threat Shin-ki, a 42-year-old man The Hankyoreh newspaper
against Guam, saying it who lives in Seoul, wrote on called for South Korea’s
was working on a plan to Facebook. There are feel- government to take on a
launch missiles into the wa- ings of bewilderment and bigger role in solving the
ters near the U.S. territory, powerlessness: Why should North Korean nuclear prob-
Roh Jae-cheon, spokes- South Korea get sucked lem. “It’s very concerning
man of South Korea’s Joint into a crisis created by that both Trump and (North
Chiefs of Staff, appeared a war of words between Korean leader) Kim Jong
on TV to declare that Seoul leaders in Washington and Un are more unpredictable
and Washington were pre- Pyongyang? “Moon has than the countries’ previ-
pared to “immediately and talked about how South ous leaders,” the newspa-
sternly punish” any provo- Korea should be in the driv- per said in an editorial. “Al-
cation by the North. er’s seat when it comes to though rhetoric is just rheto-
Contrast that with the of- dealing with North Korea, ric, you can’t dismiss the
ficial silence out of Seoul but that clearly was just possibility that a small mis-
after Trump’s comments rhetoric,” Choi Do-hyun, a understanding could lead
on Tuesday, which seemed 39-year-old office worker in to an accidental clash if
to take a page out of the Seoul, said in an interview. the comments continue to
North Korean playbook by “In reality, he can’t say escalate.”q
