Former Rep. Kim Jong-dae Returns to Current Affairs Broadcasting on YouTube
Former Rep. Kim Jong-dae has returned to YouTube current affairs broadcasting, once again joining the discussion of key domestic and international issues. He appeared in the 'The Return of Jong-dae Time' segment in Part 2 of SisaIN's YouTube program 〈Kim Eun-ji's News IN〉 on September 2. The broadcast, hosted by reporter Kim Eun-ji and joined by Cho Han-bum, a distinguished research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (a research fellow invited from outside), was set up as a forum to examine pressing issues at home and abroad.
The host noted that U.S. President Donald Trump, amid the controversy over the disclosure of President Lee Jae-myung's 'No, thank you' remark, launched another large-scale airstrike on Iran just two days later. Cho Han-bum, a distinguished research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, characterized the war as "an eternal quagmire that never ends even when it ends." He cited as grounds the religious backdrop, such as the assassination of former Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and the bombing deaths of his family members. Former Rep. Kim Jong-dae observed that a war is easy to start but hard to end, pointing out that the conflict was the result of responding with tactics alone, without strategic thinking.
The key lies in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which crude oil flows. The United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire on June 13 and signed 14 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) on June 17, but Cho said those documents began to unravel as July began. The funeral of the late former supreme leader Khamenei, held from July 4 to 9, mobilized some 20 million people, and a hard-line mood took hold inside Iran. The hard-liners began to cling to the strait, and because it is the one point on which the United States cannot concede, both countries have entered a phase in which they cannot end the conflict even if they want to, he analyzed.
Cho offered the diagnosis that there is no need to be mindful of U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump's defining trait, he said, is a fundamental lack of trust: what one did well yesterday means nothing, and all that matters is whether you give him what he wants today. His conclusion is that the so-called 'passing' — bypassing Korea — will continue going forward, but not when there is something to be gained.
There are also changes that must be reckoned in money. Former Rep. Kim relayed that President Trump said, "From now on, South Korea should handle the defense against North Korea on its own by increasing its defense spending," and, citing the precedent in which the Defense Ministry took 70 percent of the government budget increase in the first year of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, assessed that Trump has revived self-reliant national defense. Distinguished research fellow Cho Han-bum added that the U.S. Defense Department's National Defense Strategy (NDS) states that the Republic of Korea plays the most important, core, and primary role in deterring North Korea.
〈Kim Eun-ji's News IN〉, which features 'The Return of Jong-dae Time,' airs every Monday through Thursday at 5 p.m. on the SisaIN YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/sisaineditor).
