South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl in Seoul on August 15, 2022 AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP
South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl announced Monday, August 15, that he would offer Pyongyang a major aid package in exchange for denuclearization, a type of offer long spurned by North Korea.
Believing that denuclearization is “essential” for lasting peace on the peninsula, Mr Yoon detailed his offer, which would include food, energy but also help to modernize infrastructure such as ports, airports and hospitals.
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This plan “will incrementally significantly improve North Korea’s economy and the living standards of its people as the North halts development of its nuclear program and embarks on a real and substantial process of denuclearization,” Mr Yoon said during a speech marking the anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945 .
Pyongyang is preparing for another nuclear test, according to Washington and Seoul
Last week, Pyongyang threatened to “wipe out” South Korean officials and accused Seoul of being behind the country’s Covid-19 outbreak. In July, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he was “ready to mobilize its nuclear capabilities in the event of war with the United States or South Korea.”
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For experts in the region, the chances of Pyongyang taking up this offer, already mentioned in Mr Yoon’s inaugural speech, are very slim given that the North, which invests a large part of its GDP in its armaments program, has long made it clear that they have a would not enter into such an agreement.
North Korea has conducted a record-breaking series of weapons tests this year, including launching a full-range ICBM, the first since 2017. Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned in recent months that Pyongyang is preparing a new nuclear weapons test, the seventh in its history would be.
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