April 25, 2024
Opinion

Why Moon Jae-in’s “Sunshine 2.0” isn’t working

Seoul's focus on issues outside of its control has scuttled chances of rapprochement with the North

In a commentary published in the Rodong Sinmun on August 19, author Ho Yong Min highlighted some very valid points in order to understand why, more than one hundred days since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office, inter-Korean relations “are a failure” and the promised return to dialogue with the North has not been achieved.

Since July, North Korea has twice successfully test-launched the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), launched a Hwasong-12 ballistic missile that flew over Japan in August, and, most recently, conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date on September 3 2017, declaring "perfect success" with an advanced hydrogen bomb, showing to the world, once again, that sanctions are futile in halting the development of Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

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