People Power Party criticizes reduction of ROK-US joint exercises and raises argument for self-defense nuclear armament

On the 19th, the People Power Party began to criticize the Lee Jae-myung administration's foreign and security policies toward the United States in all directions after the period and scale of the 'Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS)', a joint ROK-US joint exercise, was drastically reduced at the direction of US President Donald Trump.

In a Facebook message on this day, CEO Jang Dong-hyuk wrote, "It is a 'joint' training, but it is conducted 'separately'. The 'outdoor mobility training' was suddenly canceled. 'Only defense training is conducted and there is no 'counterattack' training. The period has also been cut in half," and "In fact, the ROK-US joint training itself has been deleted."

He then pointed out, "President Lee Jae-myung said that our national defense capacity is 'overflowing'. Since it is overflowing, do we want to reduce it?" He added, "No matter how much our national defense capacity is, it is not overflowing. This is an unqualified statement from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces."

Regarding President Lee Jae-myung's meeting with China's Wang Yi, director of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Foreign Affairs Office and Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the 20th, he asked, "Why bother when the Ulchi exercise is well underway? Are you going to proudly report that you ruined the ROK-US joint exercises?"

Representative Jang asserted, “The frantic ‘security harassment’ must stop,” and “If this regime does not stop, the people must stop it.”

Chief Spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said in a commentary that day, "The U.S. Navy's George Washington aircraft carrier, which was deployed in the Pacific, was moved to the Middle East, making the 'Pacific without an aircraft carrier' a reality. What is more serious is that this vacuum is a self-inflicted result of the government's trade delays and diplomatic misalignment."

Senior Spokesperson Park pointed out, “While South Korea was drifting without even confirming its first investment project in the US worth $350 billion that it had promised, the US government even ridiculed Korea as the ‘slowest negotiator’ and even provided an excuse to reduce joint training.”

At the same time, he said, “In this situation, calling it a ‘pacemaker’ is just a lie,” and urged the government to “stop making bluffs that put national security at risk, and immediately repair the cracks in the shaky alliance.”

There was also an argument within the party that discussions on nuclear armament should begin in preparation for the possibility that the Trump administration would change its stance to acknowledge North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons.

Rep. Sang-Hyun Yoon said on Facebook, "We must reorganize our national security strategy by considering the possibility that the U.S. policy toward North Korea will move from 'dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons' to de facto 'management of North Korea's nuclear weapons.'" He continued, "We have been advocating the need for limited nuclear armament on the premise of strengthening practical nuclear deterrence, including nuclear sharing between Korea and the United States and redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons, and the abolition of North Korea's nuclear weapons. Now, we must begin a national discussion on South Korea's self-defense nuclear armament."

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo reiterated his insistence on responding to the U.S.'s request to send troops to Hormuz, saying, "We must use this as leverage to negotiate the construction of nuclear-powered submarines and the expansion of uranium enrichment and reprocessing authority for spent nuclear fuel."