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Former President Moon Jae-in speaks at an event marking the fifth anniversary of the signing of the joint Pyongyang Declaration of September 2018 held on Sept. 19 at the 63 Building in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo District. (pool photo)

Former President Moon Jae-in remarked on how “abandoning agreements and breaking off dialogue has only hastened North Korea’s nuclear development” while sharing information on a book about the North Korean nuclear program.

His comments were interpreted as criticizing the North Korea policies of his successor Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration, including its abandonment of the September 2018 comprehensive military agreement between the two.

In a message posted to his Facebook account on Saturday, Moon shared a recommendation for the book “Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program” by Siegfried Hecker.

“This book empirically shows how at every pivotal ‘hinge point’ when the North Korean nuclear issue could have been resolved or at least kept in check with diplomacy, [actors] have missed opportunities and made the situation worse through excessively ideological political decisions rather than rational choices,” he said.

“It also empirically shows that despite what dialogue opponents have claimed, it is not diplomacy and dialogue that have bought time for North Korea to advance its nuclear capabilities, but rather the abandonment of agreements and suspension of dialogue that have bought North Korea time and hastened its nuclear development,” he added.

He went on to say the book was “required reading for anyone who wants to know the reality of the North Korean nuclear issue and the reasons why diplomatic efforts to deter it have repeatedly failed.”

Hecker is a nuclear physicist and world-renowned nuclear expert who personally observed North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility and nuclear material during annual visits between 2004 and 2010.

In the book, he analyzes the various misjudgments that US administrations have made in dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue. His findings upend the conventional wisdom that North Korea’s repeated violations are the reason for the failure of agreements reached through diplomatic efforts by the US.

This is not the first time Moon has commented on Yoon’s policy approach to North Korea.

In opening remarks for a Sept. 19 ceremony at the 63 Building in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo District to commemorate the inter-Korean military agreement’s fifth anniversary, he said, “Economic performance has always been better at times when inter-Korean relations have been relatively peaceful than at times when they have not.”

“National incomes have stagnated and even fallen under administrations that have broken off [efforts to improve inter-Korean relations],” he observed.

By Lee Jun-hee, staff reporter

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