Lead
President Lee Jae Myung visited a front-line Marine Corps unit near North Korea on Wednesday, the eve of the 76th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and stressed the importance of strong deterrence against the enemy to ensure peace, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Lee traveled to the Marine Corps unit based on Yeonpyeong Island, just below the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea, the de facto inter-Korean maritime border, to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 war, according to Yonhap.
Coverage Comparison
Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's leading wire service, provided comprehensive coverage of the president's activities surrounding the anniversary. Reports detailed the visit to the Marine Corps unit, the president's remarks on national security, and his attendance at a ceremony marking the war's anniversary. The coverage also included his planned schedule for the week, including a banquet with veterans and a meeting on national security firms.
Key Claims
During a lunch with the unit's service members, Lee described three stages of ensuring national security: winning a fight, winning without a fight, and making a fight unnecessary. He named making a fight unnecessary as the most important, saying, "This exactly constitutes peace. Peace is the most solid foundation for security," as quoted by Yonhap.
Lee said peace should be based on "strong deterrence to overpower the enemy," pledging efforts to further strengthen military capabilities to make the country's military a powerful force, Yonhap reported.
The president also pledged to reform the country's compulsory military service system, adding the government will eventually seek to minimize military conscription to replace it with a voluntary system. "I will reform the system so that you no longer waste your precious time in the military, but that (your military service) helps you demonstrate your abilities in society," Lee said.
Lee also visited an observation deck overlooking the NLL and received a briefing on illegal fishing by Chinese vessels along the militarily sensitive maritime border, according to Yonhap.
In a separate ceremony marking the 76th anniversary of the outbreak of the war, held in Gyeonggi Province and attended by hundreds of war veterans and government and military officials, Lee pledged to establish a peaceful Korean Peninsula free from the fear of war. "(The government) will safeguard the people and the territory through strong defense capabilities and build a peaceful Korean Peninsula which has neither fear of war nor a need for conflict," Lee said, as quoted by Yonhap.
The presidential office had earlier announced Lee's plans for the week, including the visit to the Marine Corps unit and an inspection of a national security-related area, followed by a banquet with Korean War veterans and their families, Yonhap reported. On Friday, Lee plans to preside over a meeting to discuss strategies to nurture future-oriented national security firms as part of broader efforts to honor patriots and strengthen national defense capabilities, the office said.