No US-NK summit until end of war in Ukraine

After liberal President Lee Jae Myung took office last June, the administration quickly pursued a U.S.-North Korea summit. At the first South Korea-U.S. summit in August, Lee called the U.S. President Donald Trump a “peacemaker” and himself a “pacemaker,” offering his help to organize a potential summit. These initiatives recall the moves made by the Moon Jae-in administration in 2018. As a party that enshrines peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula as a core principle of its diplomatic and security platform, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is once again acting with the same determination to do whatever it takes to improve relations with North Korea. However, I must argue that no such meeting should materialize for the foreseeable future, not even next year. Seoul must avoid repeating past mistakes, especially if they involve deceiving the international community or damaging its national interests. It has previously lost North Korea’s trust. Since then, Pyongyang has destroyed the Inter-Korean Liaison Office, violated the Sept. 19 military agreement and insulted Sou