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South Korean President Moon Jae-in makes opening remarks during a Blue House meeting with senior secretaries and aides on Aug. 12. (Blue House photo pool)
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S. Korean president praises “mature civic consciousness” of the public
During a meeting of senior secretaries and advisors at the Blue House on Aug. 12, South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed his admiration for the mature response shown by the public during the conflict provoked by Japan’s trade retaliation. Moon also called on his advisors at the Blue House and government ministries to be “calm and level-headed” in their own response. “Even now, we continue to oppose adversarial nationalism and seek a relationship of equality and peaceful coexistence, a relationship grounded in our love for mankind. I would like to express my deepest respect and gratitude for the mature civic consciousness exhibited by the South Korean public,” Moon said during his opening remarks at the meeting. “While advocating universal human values, we will work toward a global community of peaceful cooperation in which people are valued. We will fulfill our duty and play our role in partnership with the international community.” Moon’s remarks — made on the same day that Seoul decided to remove Japan from its white list of countries that receive preferential treatment in exports — appear to have been tailored to influence public opinion abroad, as South Korea and Japan vie for the support of the international community. In Moon’s remarks to the Japanese government, he exercised maximum restraint, while stressing that the countermeasures that the South Korean government has taken in its conflict with the Abe administration are ultimately aimed at the peace and stability of the international community. “Even when our ancestors were shedding blood in their struggle for independence a hundred years ago, they were advocating and implementing the cosmopolitan principle that we are all citizens of this earth. Amid their resolute opposition to the Japanese government’s unfair economic retaliation, [South Koreans] are remaining high-minded and dignified as they seek to avoid harming their amity with the Japanese people,” Moon said. “If our two peoples communicate with each other through the values of democracy and human rights, based on a mature civic consciousness, and if they reinforce their friendship through peace and brotherly love, the future of South Korea-Japan relations will become even brighter.” Addressing his advisors at the Blue House and the South Korean government as a whole, Moon once again called for a “calm and unemotional response.” “Our response to Japan’s economic retaliation must not be emotional. Despite our outrage, we must take a deep breath as we think of clear-headed yet fundamental countermeasures,” Moon said. “The government will treat Japan’s economic retaliation as a blessing in disguise and continue to frame a detailed and elaborate strategy for further developing and strengthening our economy.” Boycott of Japanese products shouldn’t turn into hatred of Japanese people A key official at the Blue House offered the following commentary on Moon’s remarks: “President Moon was saying that the South Korean public’s boycott of Japanese products shouldn’t lead to the ostracism of Japanese people. If anti-Japanese feeling gets out of hand, it can morph into hatred of Japan, and the president was expressing his gratitude to the public for having the maturity to avoid that.” ”With Liberation Day just around the corner, the president was pointing the way, broadly speaking, toward the future-oriented relationship that our two countries need to build,” another official said. While acknowledging that South Korea’s dispute with Japan has been escalating since the latter’s adoption of punitive economic measures, the official said, Moon suggested that not only governmental effort but also solidarity between the civic societies of both countries was necessary for South Korea-Japan relations to develop productively. Emphasizing universal human values Indeed, Moon’s message on Monday was loaded with value-oriented language such as “democracy and human rights” and “peace and brotherly love.” He also concluded his message with the pledge that “the Republic of Korea will continue to develop into a country that is a model not only in respect to its economic power but also in respect to values such as human rights and peace.” These phrases echo what Moon said during a meeting of senior secretaries and aides on Aug. 5: “Along with our renewed pledge to build a powerful economy, we will also keep pursuing an order of peace and cooperation and an economy that’s free and fair while cherishing the values of democracy and human rights. We will take the lead in building a peaceful order on the Korean Peninsula and hold steady in our effort to realize the spirit of co-existence, joint prosperity, and mutual cooperation on the international stage.” By Lee Wan, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
