President Lee Jae Myung’s remarks at the 11th Yellow Sea Defense Day ceremony on Friday have stirred controversy. When a bereaved family member of a Cheonan victim asked him to demand an apology from North Korea, Lee responded, “If we tell them to apologize, will North Korea apologize?” The presidential office said on Saturday that his comment expressed frustration over the harsh reality of inter-Korean relations, but the dispute has not subsided.
The harsh reality mentioned by the presidential office appears to refer to the current situation in which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has defined Korea as the “most hostile state” and cut off all dialogue. But the current condition of inter-Korean relations and the question of demanding an apology for North Korea’s past provocations are entirely different matters. An apology should not be sought only when dialogue is active, when relations are good or when Pyongyang appears likely to respond. Whether inter-Korean ties are good or bad, Korea should continue to demand an apology until North Korea answers.
That is consistent with the purpose of Yellow Sea Defense Day, which was established to honor the 55 Korean service members who died defending the Yellow Sea against North Korean provocations and to strengthen public awareness of national security. If, as the presidential office said, the sacrifices of those heroes are not to be in vain, then the government must maintain its resolve to hold North Korea responsible to the end.
Japan offers an instructive contrast. Successive Japanese prime ministers, including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, have continued to urge North Korea to hold a summit to resolve the issue of Japanese abductees. At a recent Washington summit, Takaichi also asked President Donald Trump for cooperation. She did so even though relations between North Korea and Japan are poor enough that Kim Yo-jong recently said there would be no reason to meet if the goal was to pursue a unilateral issue that Pyongyang does not even recognize.
Another concern is the apparent move by political circles to turn this issue into another partisan fight ahead of the June local elections. For years after the incident, Korean society suffered from baseless conspiracy theories and politically motivated attempts to shift blame from North Korea to the government. The establishment of Yellow Sea Defense Day in 2016 finally helped settle that division. Any renewed effort to use the issue for electoral gain should not be tolerated. Politicians should show restraint.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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