hankyoreh

Kim Tae-hyo, whom Yoon tapped to be first deputy national security advisor, responds to questions at a press conference on May 3 at the office of the presidential transition committee. (Yonhap News)

The transition committee for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol named South Korea becoming a “global linchpin state contributing to freedom, peace, and prosperity” as its target for the area of foreign affairs and national security in its list of 110 policy initiatives announced Tuesday.

In addition to a stronger emphasis on the South Korea-US alliance, the committee also stressed the importance of “reciprocity” with North Korea. The additional deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries, which had been a matter of some controversy, was not included on the list.

In terms of North Korea policy, the transition committee said it planned to “achieve sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula through North Korea’s complete and verifiable denuclearization.” It also said it intended to pursue “denuclearization based on principles and consistency” and the “establishment of a peace regime.”

It further announced plans to “present a road map for foreseeable denuclearization based on close coordination with the US, while pursuing denuclearization negotiations with North Korea based on the principle of reciprocity.”

Kim Tae-hyo, a transition committee member who was nominated as first deputy director of the National Security Office, said, “Even if we aren’t repeating the typical ‘CVID’ [complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization] phrases, they still apply.”

In terms of a timeline for pursuing economic and development cooperation with North Korea, the committee said this would happen when “progress is made with North Korea’s denuclearization.”

Under this approach, South Korea would use economic cooperation with the North to hasten its denuclearization — a similar concept to the Lee Myung-bak administration’s “Vision 3000: Denuclearization and Openness” approach to North Korea policy, which failed to yield results.

With the listing of “normalizing inter-Korean relations” as one of its government tasks, the Yoon administration signaled a strong sense of concern about the current state of relations with Pyongyang.

Commenting on the omission of additional THAAD deployments from the list of tasks, Kim Tae-hyo said, “You can view it as us continuing with our current circumspect approach.” He also said the matter would be “reviewed as we continue to view the security situation going forward.”

Additionally, the transition committee announced plans to expand the relationship with the US into a “comprehensive strategic alliance,” while establishing a “future partnership” with Japan that aligns with shared interests and values based on a return to shuttle diplomacy and restoration of trust.

It did not announce any plans for concrete solutions to address issues in South Korea-Japan relations such as compensation for survivors of forced labor mobilization and military sexual slavery and the controls imposed by Tokyo on certain exports.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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