SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea’s rapidly accelerating nuclear weapons program is beginning to pose a grave challenge for liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whose dovish proposals for engagement have been met by silence and two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in less than a month.
Throughout the election campaign and his presidency that began in May, Moon has persistently expressed a desire to reach out to North Korea.
But in the wake of the North’s latest ICBM test, a stern-looking Moon on Saturday sounded more like his conservative predecessor as he ordered his troops to conduct a live-fire exercise with U.S. forces and endorsed stronger sanctions against Pyongyang. He also told government officials to schedule talks with Washington over increasing the warhead limits of South Korean missiles.