[US midterm election] Song Young-gil “Entering a phase of diplomacy based on higher order equations… both a challenge and an opportunity” (comprehensive)

Regarding the U.S. midterm elections on the 5th, Rep. Song Young-gil of the Democratic Party of Korea, special adviser to the President for Peace and Diplomacy, said, "We have entered a diplomatic phase of a higher-order equation in which we have to deal with the Trump administration and the Democratic Congress at the same time."

Representative Song said in a Facebook post that day, "The United States has now entered a new phase in which a Republican president and a Democratic-led Congress coexist. It is both a challenge and an opportunity for us."

He said, "Changes in the U.S. Congress do not immediately mean changes in foreign policy. Rather, as checks and coordination between the White House and Congress are strengthened, a space for new negotiations may be opened in trade, industry, and security issues."

He continued, “We need to create a situation where the ROK-US alliance and inter-Korean relations become a mutually virtuous cycle.”

He added, "What the American people thought was most important in this election was ultimately the issue of making a living. Dissatisfaction with the soaring prices and the burden of living expenses was expressed in the vote. In a democracy, there is no politics more important than the lives of the people."

Meanwhile, Rep. Kim Geon of the People Power Party, who is the opposition secretary of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, said on Facebook, "It is the American voters' evaluation of the state administration that President Trump has been pursuing for nearly two years, and an example that shows the results of politics that are divorced from public sentiment. It has significant implications for our politics as well."

He, a former diplomat, added, "Isn't the midterm elections in the United States showing what kind of results a one-way administration of government will bring, such as pushing through the special prosecution law on indictment cancellation, which does not receive sympathy and support from the public, with the power of the majority in Congress?"

Lee Ki-in, chairman of the New Reform Party's emergency response committee, said at the emergency response committee meeting held at the National Assembly, "When the power entrusted with changing lives is preoccupied with self-protection, the people withhold support," and added, "This is a point that the Lee Jae-myung administration must read uncomfortably."