In her New Year address and news conference on Wednesday, President Park Geun-hye focused on the “emergency situations” that she said Korea faced on the security and economic fronts.
On the security side, she vowed to leave no stone unturned to ensure that the U.N. Security Council could adopt a resolution imposing the “toughest yet sanctions” on North Korea.
The UNSC has been drafting a new resolution against the North following what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb test a week ago.
To inflict real pain on the rogue state, China’s role is important. So Park unequivocally urged China to play a “necessary role” in slapping new sanctions on it.
China has repeatedly voiced its firm opposition to North Korea’s nuclear program, but it is, as usual, reluctant to be tough with its ally.
So Park pointedly noted that China would not be able to prevent Pyongyang from carrying out “a fifth or sixth nuclear test” unless it translated its words into action.
Noting that Beijing has been communicating closely with Seoul on the North’s nuclear program, she said she believed China would play an appropriate role as a standing member of the UNSC. “A good partner is one who lends a helping hand to the other in times of difficulty,” she said.
Park may well request China’s sincere cooperation in punishing the North. Since her inauguration, she has committed herself to deepening relations with China. Last September, she graced a military parade held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with her presence, despite concern in Washington that she was tilting toward China.
But China is unlikely to respond to Park’s requests for cooperation or change its stance on the North, as it appears determined to reject measures that could destabilize the isolated ally.
In this regard, it was appropriate that Park hinted at the possibility of Seoul agreeing to deploy the THAAD advance missile defense system.
Park said Seoul would review the THAAD issue from the perspective of national security and interests. Her remark was a departure from the negative stance that the Seoul government has thus far held towards THAAD deployment.
As such, it was explicit pressure on China, which regards the presence of a THAAD unit in Korea as a security threat.
Now, Beijing should realize that North Korea’s nuclear threat has reached a level where Seoul has to think about the THAAD system seriously. Beijing can ignore the threat the North poses to the South at the expense of its own security.
On the economic front, Park sought to keep the landmark tripartite agreement on labor reforms alive, as the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, which had represented the labor side at the three-way talks, threatened to jettison it.
Park proposed a concession to the unions regarding the five reform bills. Previously, the government insisted the five bills be passed as a package. Park excluded the bill on fixed-term and part-time workers, one of the two most disputed bills. The other bill concerns temporary agency workers.
The main opposition party welcomed Park’s proposal for concession, but it still maintained its resistance to the bill on temporary agency workers. Yet it needs to respond to Park’s proposal in kind. Otherwise, the ongoing labor reform effort will fall apart.
