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| ▲ President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers congratulatory remarks at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy at the academy in southern Seoul on Sept. 1, 2023. (Yonhap) |
Yoon-diplomatic academy
Yoon says nation's freedom under constant threat from 'communist totalitarian forces'
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol said Friday the nation's freedom is under constant threat from "communist totalitarian forces" that seek to arouse anti-Japanese sentiment and paint recent cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan as a risk.
Yoon made the remark during a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, an institution under the foreign ministry tasked with conducting research on foreign policy and training diplomats.
"Liberal democracy and the market economy are the driving forces that have supported the peace and prosperity of the Republic of Korea," he said during the ceremony at the academy in southern Seoul, referring to South Korea by its formal name.
"However, our freedom is now under constant threat. Still, communist totalitarian forces and their opportunist followers, as well as anti-state forces, are inciting anti-Japanese sentiment and misleading as if the South Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation mechanisms produced at Camp David will put the Republic of Korea and the people in danger," he said.
Yoon was referring to a series of cooperative mechanisms he adopted with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during their trilateral summit at the Camp David presidential retreat near Washington last month.
Yoon called for building a solid cooperation network with nations sharing the universal values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law in areas including national security, the economy, information and cutting-edge technologies.
"An ambiguous foreign policy line signifies an absence of values and philosophy," he said. "A foreign policy that fails to give predictability to others will never be able to win trust or the national interest."
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