Moon Jae-in

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff have said that North Korea has fired an unknown projectile, widely believed to be a ballistic missile.
This would appear to be the first missile test by North Korea since a failed launch on the 29th of April at the height of tensions with the United States.
This test is also the first since this week’s election of a new seemingly more peace minded South Korean President, Moon Jae-in.
READ MORE: South Korea’s new President may turn to peace

This week South Korea held an election to replaced the impeached former President Park Geun-hye. Whereas President Park was militantly pro-America, the new President,  Moon Jae-in campaigned on a platform of peace and reconciliation.
In no way is President Moon anti-American, but instead he favours an approach whereby South Korea might work more closely with important regional countries in the region like China, in addition to maintaining good relations with Washington.

(ANTIMEDIA Op-Ed) Ask and you shall receive. For weeks upon weeks on end, the American populace has watched Donald Trump and his administration, along with pundits in the corporate media, drone on about how China should step up its game in the effort to thwart North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. From the Washington Post on Tuesday:

(ANTIMEDIA) South Korea — More drills are being conducted off the Korean Peninsula in a continuing show of force by the U.S., Japan, and the currently leaderless South Korea. These drills are aimed at getting Kim Jong-un to back off from his nuclear ambitions, the mainstream narrative goes, but South Korea’s likely next president just had some surprising warnings for the United States.

Sputnik | April 29, 2017 Moon Jae-in, the leading candidate in the upcoming presidential election in South Korea, is determined to reassess the controversial deployment of the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system since it “did not follow a democratic procedure,” his press team said in a statement seen by Sputnik […]

With North Korea and the United States trading rhetorical jabs like geo-political boxers, few people have considered how recent events in South Korea may have effected the American decision to intensify the situation in North Korea.
This year, on the 10th of March, South Korean President Park Geun-hye was removed from office. She was later arrested and is currently still behind bars.
President Park was deeply pro-American and considered to be on the militant end of the spectrum of South Korean politics.