Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the People Power Party, met with foreign correspondents on the 8th and said, "Even now, I hope the Lee Jae-myung administration will shift the course of its foreign and security policy and return to a path that saves the national interest and the people."
That afternoon, at a briefing with foreign correspondents hosted by the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club (SFCC) at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Jang said, "Many people worry that the South Korea-U.S. alliance is collapsing and that Korea may be breaking away from the free camp," and stated accordingly.
Jang said, "Korea is still facing North Korea, which is armed with nuclear weapons and missiles, across the Demilitarized Zone, and behind North Korea stand China and Russia with powerful militaries, so we cannot help but be greatly affected by the reshaping of the international order," adding, "From that perspective, we have considerable concerns about the Lee Jae-myung administration's foreign and security policy."
He went on, "No administration has been hostile to the liberal camp or denied the South Korea-U.S. alliance itself," noting, "But when you look at the Lee Jae-myung administration's foreign and security policy, it shows significant differences even from the positions of past progressive governments."
He added, "President Lee Jae-myung asked, 'Do we need to rely on foreign troops?,' calling U.S. Forces Korea foreign troops and hastily pushing for a transfer of wartime operational control," and said, "People are worried that the Lee Jae-myung administration's policy stance is premised on a withdrawal of U.S. Forces Korea."
In particular, he said, "It is troubling that conflicts with traditional allies are increasing, such as the South Korea-U.S. rift caused by the Coupang incident and the president's criticism of Israel on social media," adding, "When I visited the United States recently, I was able to confirm that many in the U.S. government, Congress, and across the political and civic spectrum have concerns about the current state of the alliance."
Jang said, "I believe the Lee Jae-myung administration must revise this foreign and security policy stance as soon as possible," and argued, "The more we strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance and expand coordination with the free camp, the greater Korea's diplomatic leverage has become, and the economy has been able to grow even more."
On inter-Korean relations, Jang argued, "(Minister Chung Dong-young of the Ministry of Unification) is siding with North Korea's position of changing inter-Korean relations from a unification orientation to two hostile states," adding, "In the past, Korea's progressive camp made unification the supreme task, but when North Korea's Kim Jong-un put forward the two-state theory, they changed their stance overnight and are following it."
Regarding the Lee Jae-myung administration's diplomacy toward China, he criticized, "It is pursuing a China-leaning diplomacy compared with conservative governments," and added, "On the structures in the Yellow Sea, the Lee Jae-myung administration has not presented any position, and while it allowed unlimited visa-free entry for Chinese nationals, people are questioning for what purpose this is being carried out."