The centrist presidential candidate of South Korea’s ruling party took a more conciliatory stance on North Korea than his main rival Sunday, saying U.S. President Donald Trump had “standing” in dealing with Pyongyang.
Moon Jae-in, who is expected to win easily, has said all options are on the table in dealings with North Korea but on Wednesday, ahead of his runoff election against opposition candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, he said: “If diplomacy fails, the time to use force is coming.”
But on Sunday, a day before the election, Mr. Moon urged Mr. Trump to seize North Korea’s current conciliatory offer, and urged the U.S. president to learn from his mistakes, including the threat to drop “mother of all bombs” on the North’s troops in the region, in the war.
Mr. Trump on Sunday singled out a Moon spokesman as “wacky” for his comment about the dropping the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bombs. The detonation, a World War II-era weapon that resembles a football stadium, would have been the first time the weapon had been deployed in combat.