“Dizzying” is how one South Korean newspaper described the diplomatic typhoon swirling over the Korean Peninsula, with all the big players seemingly wanting different things and Moon, at times, the only calm in the storm. The son of North Korean refugees and a leading advocate of a previous liberal government’s “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with the North, Moon has spent his career — a lifetime, really — waiting for this chance. Perhaps the best comparison is to the man who Moon has called his “destiny,” and whose North Korean policy Moon is forever linked to: The late liberal president, Roh Moo-hyun. Moon was raised in poverty in Busan by North Korean parents who’d fled during the war. “The occasion today is watched closely by the world, and there’s a lot of hope placed on the South and North,” he said.

Source: Egypt Independent February 11, 2018 07:52 UTC