Every year on Aug. 15, the president of South Korea delivers a speech commemorating Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. 

But while presidents typically hold forth on patriotism, national glory and crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists, Yoon Suk-yeol’s speech this year was different. He did not discuss Japanese misdeeds but instead focused on one of the paradoxes of liberation — the peninsula’s division into North and South. 

In his speech, President Yoon proposed a new strategy for dealing with North Korea, in essence embracing regime change and unification by absorption as Seoul’s official policy, framing this as part of