One of the top-ranked conservatives seeking to be South Korea’s next president said the U.S. was "reckless” in its diplomacy with North Korea and questioned if the American ally’s nuclear shield offered real protection.
"America is approaching North Korea in a naive way,” Hong Jun-pyo, a leading candidate from the People Power Party said in an interview Wednesday, where he criticized the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden for trying to prod Pyongyang back to stalled nuclear talks.
"If you look at the way the U.S. approaches North Korea with diplomacy, they’ve gotten dragged into their ways,” he said, adding that Pyongyang "will never back down, they’ll just pretend to back down.”