NEW YORK — President Lee Jae-myung said on the 21st local time that "there is considerable value in trading sanctions on North Korea, which have little practical effect, for a halt to further nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology development."
Lee, who is visiting New York for the U.N. General Assembly, said in a New York Times interview published the same day that "under the current circumstances, nothing can be achieved if denuclearization is set as the goal." He added that "once North Korea judges that it has secured enough nuclear weapons and missiles, it will be tempted to export them to make money." He warned that "that would be a truly dangerous moment."
On U.S. President Donald Trump's requests for support related to the Strait of Hormuz and pressure for investment in the United States, Lee said, "I fully understand that the U.S. president can make various remarks from his position." On the question of dispatching troops, he drew a line, saying that "sending troops to a war already underway between third countries is prohibited by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea."
