Democratic Party of Korea chief weighs in on Trump calling North Korea ‘nuclear power’

Democratic Party of Korea leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung said Thursday that South Korea needed to be prepared for a scenario where the US recognizes North Korea as a nuclear-armed state after President Donald Trump referred to the regime as a “nuclear power” earlier this week.

Lee's remarks came as he responded to reporters at his first press conference since detained President Yoon Suk Yeol’s bid to impose martial law was thwarted last December by a National Assembly resolution. Regarding the new US administration, Lee said its policy position on the North Korean nuclear issue was “not yet clear.”

“We cannot speculate at this point how the new administration in Washington is going to deal with North Korea and its nuclear program. The US position is not yet clear on whether North Korea is to be recognized as a nuclear-weapon state. But we have to be prepared for that scenario,” Lee said.

The Democratic Party leader said South Korea could be sidelined and lose negotiating power if Trump resumes dialogue with North Korea’s Kim.

“Denuclearization of North Korea is a goal that the international community has pursued and agreed upon by both North and South Korea. But it has not been implemented in reality,” Lee said, noting that the aim of denuclearizing North Korea has not been successfully implemented.

These remarks build on what the Democratic Party calls a “diplomacy of pragmatism” that he has long preached.

The Democratic Party report on the party’s strategies for the second Trump presidency, released Thursday, similarly noted the possibility of South Korea having to make some compromises on North Korea denuclearization as a Korean Peninsula policy goal.

The party’s report said in the event Washington treats North Korea as a nuclear state, South Korea should decide on the acceptable level of nuclear arms reduction, as opposed to complete denuclearization, by North Korea, and what it could gain in return for making those concessions.

The Democratic Party report also said Trump could be eyeing the Nobel Peace Prize by resuming stalled the US dialogue with North Korea.

The report was by the Democratic Party think tank the Institute for Democracy and the party’s committee on the 2024 US presidential election, with lawmakers including Reps. Wi Sung-lac, Kim Byung-joo and Chung Dong-young as members and the think tank’s principal researcher Kim Eun-ok as the head.

Lee’s press conference Thursday, previously unplanned, took place as "Lee Jae-myung skeptics” slowly gained leverage amid the Democratic Party’s faltering ratings and Lee’s apparent failure to court those outside his base.

In some of the polls for preferred presidential candidates released this week, Lee was shown to be in a tight race against People Power Party candidates, despite the conservative party's president facing a likely impeachment.

In a hypothetical match-up between Lee and Yoon’s Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, the Democratic Party leader was behind by 4.6 percentage points at 41.8 percent to 46.4 percent in a poll published Thursday on the National Election Commission website. The poll, requested by the weekly Sisa Journal, surveyed 1,006 people aged 18 and up from Jan. 18-19.

On the People Power Party's polling lead, Lee said his party has to “humbly accept the voice of the South Korean people.”

He said the “insurrection” waged by Yoon, who is now detained and facing an impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court, was not over, and that it was Lee's party that would help South Korea recover from the ongoing aftermath.

Lee’s standing in the Democratic Party is further threatened by an imminent court ruling on his election law violations case, likely at the end of March, which could cost him his chance to run for president if the Constitutional Court impeaches Yoon.

On the same day as Lee’s press conference, the pro-Moon forces, the Democratic Party leader’s rival faction within the Democratic Party, held a rare meeting at the Assembly.

At the launch event of a policy institute founded by Park Kwang-on, who was part of former Democratic Party President Moon Jae-in’s presidential campaign, Kim Kyoung-soo -- Moon’s close confidante seen as Lee’s potential rival in a possible Democratic Party presidential primary -- made a rare public appearance.

Kim told reporters the Democratic Party needed to distinguish itself from the “insurrectionists who stormed the court.”

Kim was speaking about last week’s violent rally staged by Yoon supporters at the Seoul Western District Court, which approved the investigative authorities’ request to issue an arrest warrant after the president.

“In order to win, we have to be different. We have to do better,” Kim said, referring to a highly probable presidential by-election.