hankyoreh

Minjoo Party candidate Moon Jae-in (left) and People’s Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo

Mounting tensions around the Korean Peninsula are leading to subtle changes in the leading presidential candidates’ positions on the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system.

While he continued maintaining that the issue should be subject to public debate under the next administration, Minjoo Party candidate Moon Jae-in also said the THAAD deployment “may be unavoidable if North Korea continues with its nuclear provocations.” People’s Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo went further, saying he would “convince the party to change its platform against the THAAD deployment.” Analysts said the changes in the candidates’ pledges were meant to target moderate conservative voters who have yet to make up their mind between Moon and Ahn.

Speaking just after an Apr. 11 press conference on his “vision for South Gyeongsang Province” at the Changwon Convention Center in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Moon said he was not talking about “establishing one position [on the THAAD issue] and putting it off until the next administration.”

“This idea is that if we leave the decision for the next administration, we can use the THAAD deployment as a card, taking advantage of different diplomatic cards to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue,” he explained.

“THAAD is just one idea for responding to the North Korean nuclear issue, and it’s a weapon for defensive purposes,” he stressed.

Moon went on to say his position on the deployment “could change depending on North Korea’s attitude on complete denuclearization.”

“If North Korea continues engaging in provocations like a sixth nuclear test and advancing its nuclear capabilities, the THAAD deployment may be unavoidable,” he added.

“If North Korea stops any further provocations and comes to the negotiating table for full denuclearization with its nuclear program frozen, we may be able to provisionally hold off on a THAAD deployment decision. If the North Korean nuclear program is fully abandoned, there won’t be any need for a THAAD deployment,” he continued.

While Moon‘s remarks maintained their “strategic ambiguity,” they also suggested the THAAD deployment may be unavoidable depending on North Korea’s attitude.

At the time of the administration‘s initial announcement in July 2016, Moon demanded that the THAAD deployment be “reconsidered from square one”. After the subsequent agreement with the US on the deployment and the beginnings of the battery’s actual positioning, he said he did not “think it will be easy to overturn an agreement [on the deployment] that has already been reached between South Korea and the US,” but maintained that leaving the matter for the next administration would “give the opportunity to put it through a public debate and parliamentary ratification process and win over China and Russia.”

In a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, lawmaker Song Young-gil, head of the Minjoo Party‘s central election committee headquarters, said that Moon had “merely expressed his firm commitment to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue” and that “nothing has changed in his position.”

In Ahn’s case, the change in stance has been much more dramatic. In July 2016, Ahn demanded a referendum on and parliamentary ratification of the THAAD deployment, arguing that it “does not help the national interest on the whole.” He continued voicing his opposition to THAAD afterwards, declaring that he would “make a priority of reconsidering the national interest during the next administration.”

But since the start of 2017, Ahn began supporting the deployment instead, arguing that the next administration should “respect the agreement between states.” At a Kwanhun Club debate (a meeting of senior South Korean journalists) on Apr. 6, he said he would “address the various thoughts within the [People’s] party and get people on board so we are moving in the same direction as the party.” The message was that he planned to reverse the party’s official platform of opposition to the THAAD deployment.

Commenting on his change in position, Ahn’s camp noted that the deployment “has already begun” and that South Korea has “already received been subject to many sanctions from China.”

“There is no need to cause deterioration in relations with the US by reversing [the decision]. We need to use diplomacy to resolve the issues with China,” the camp said.

But critics have also argued that Ahn’s change in stance on the THAAD deployment was a strategic move aimed at capturing conservatives with nowhere else to go after the recent impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye.

By Lee Jung-ae and Choi Hye-jung, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]