[A head-to-head match] Lee In-young, "A solution to Mrs. Kim Gun-hee's problem? The special inspector is out of date."Only the special prosecutor is correct."

- North Korea and Russia are definitely entering the military alliance...North Korea would have technically needed Russian help
- weapons to kill Ukraine? After all, the two Koreas are at war.Undesirable
- Self-nuclear armament, self-denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, self-disposal...Strategic checks must be taken
- The launch of the North Korean Human Rights Foundation must be approached carefully.Need wisdom to develop in a balanced way between the two Koreas
- Issues related to First Lady Kim Gun-hee? The special inspector is out of date.Only the special prosecutor answers
- Myung Tae-kyun, it seems to be a deep-rooted tradition of people's power.None within the Democratic Party
- Open primary should be considered first, practically introduced primary

◆ [YTN Radio SHINYUL's news]
■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (17:00-19:00)
■ Air date: October 18, 2024 (Friday)
■ Proceedings: Shin Yul, Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy at Myongji University
■ Dialogue: Lee In-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea,

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.
◆ Shin Yul: Shin Yul's news head-to-head match begins part 4. In the front interview of the fourth part today, we had a really hard time bringing you here. You were the Minister of Unification, right? Rep. Lee In-young of the Democratic Party of Korea is in the studio. Welcome.

◇ Lee In-young: Yes, hello.

◆ Sin-ryul: There are so many problems these days, but the problem we can't overlook is this North Korea. So he sent troops to the war in Russia and Ukraine. This breaking news just came out. Is there an additional 3,000 people in that breaking news? There is a saying that about 10,000 troops will be sent by December. As I said earlier, Lee served as the Minister of Unification, what do you think is the reason for sending this?

◇ Lee In-young: First of all, we signed a treaty last June regarding comprehensive strategic partnership and things like that. It was said to be a new treaty between North Korea and Russia, but this is a clear entry into the level of military alliance. So, for the North, we helped Russia, so Russia should also help us if there is any military situation in the North later on. I'm going to make a device like this. As many experts say, there are such technological demands that North Korea must be more advanced militarily, especially in the fields of satellites and missiles. In that respect, I think there must have been a need to ask for Russian help in terms of miniaturization, multiple warheads, accuracy, atmospheric reentry technology, and so on. To bring out those things, economically, for example, 2,000 dollars per person is about 20,000 dollars per year, and if it's about 10,000 people, it's about 200 million dollars. Last year, North Korea probably exported about $350 million. Compared to that, it's by no means a small financial resource. In the past, when we were President Park Chung-hee, there were experiences like these that were used to finance economic development through the dispatch of troops to the Vietnam War, and so there must be demands in that respect. But I think these three analysis plus books ultimately send a message to the United States. In the meantime, the U.S. continued to turn a blind eye to the North and did not respond more than calling for a formal dialogue, and in this process, the North is sending a certain message to the U.S. through its participation in Ukraine. It is also casting a long-term strategic ultimate message. That's how I see it.

◆ Shin Yul: But what I'm curious about is that more than 10,000 people are now sending troops. Before that, don't you think North Korea's power will be quite empty if we export tens of thousands of shells?

◇ Lee In-young: Maybe they provided some strategic foundation related to their conventional war with regard to artillery shells, even at the risk of bleeding. I think these are the analyses of general experts, and in that sense, they are still checking their strategic military foundation. We also dispatched elite troops. I'm talking about it like this.

◆ Shin Yul: His name is Storm Squad.

◇ Lee In-young: It's about 40,000 to 10,000 people, but with that number, it's a strategic bleeding. I think it's still a little hard to see it like this.

◆ Sin-ryul: There are about 40,000 storm soldiers. The special forces?

◇ Lee In-young: Besides that, there are talks about more than 100,000 people when it comes to special warfare units, but wouldn't it be like that when it comes to storm corps anyway?

◆ Shin-yul: But honestly, this is a little different from this, but I think if you do special forces, you'll have a lot of muscles, but when I watched the video, there were a lot of cases where your physique was a little small.

◇ Lee In-young: If you think about it as just a close-up war, you can see whether a small thing can secure military power, but it's a matter of dealing with guns and in some ways dealing with guns, so it's not a matter to underestimate in that respect. But most of the military in the North now guesses that they are not these people who grew up with enough nutrition in those difficult times in the 90s, so they might be in that extension.

◆ Sin-ryul: But again, North Korea is not officially confirming it now, and the most interesting thing is that the United States can't confirm it now. What's the reason?

◇ Lee In-young: If this is true, I don't think the United States would know.

◆ Sin-ryul: I guess so.

◇ Lee In-young: But as soon as we officially acknowledge this, the United States should have some kind of policy response, and in that regard, it might be trying to make a more strategic judgment on these things that kind of lead to the North's strategy, and in reality, it might be trying to be a little more ambiguous because the U.S. presidential election is too close to take clear policies on such a strategic response.

◆ Shin Yul: Actually, it's a regime change period because we're in the U.S., but if I ask you about the U.S. for a second. Will the impact of the U.S. policy toward North Korea on the Korean Peninsula be very different depending on former President Trump becoming president again or Harris becoming president? How do you see it?

◇ Lee In-young: Don't you think there's definitely a difference in visual effects? So President Trump's style and Vice President Harris' style are a little different. There must be differences in these areas, which are intuitive or rational, but ultimately, when it comes to some kind of strategy in the United States, I think that I have no choice but to enter a phase of change. We've been focusing on sanctions for the past 10 years, and I think about the past 10 years, whether it's right to continue with strategic patience or not, and President Trump will have to talk again and solve the problem if he becomes the president, so I think we have no choice but to talk to the North differently from the previous 10 years.

◆ Shin Yul: But some say that former President Trump is holding talks with North Korea when he becomes president, and there is a possibility that this could be a nuclear disarmament talks. What do you think? It's an act of recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power.

◇ Lee In-young: Isn't that a different situation than before? Unlike in the early stages of nuclear development, now it is a process in which nuclear capabilities have advanced considerably and are advanced beyond some stage.

◆ Shin Yul: So why did Secretary-General Lee actually talk about nuclear possession?

◇ Lee In-young: When I was a minister, I sometimes said, "If someone asks me a question, isn't it a de facto nuclear-capable country?" But if you think about it like this after 10 years, I think we should go into a solution based on a different situation than before. It is desirable only when it is this process of freezing nuclear programs, reducing nuclear programs and ultimately denuclearizing, and so it is a process of any direct nuclear negotiations between the United States and the North, in which the Republic of Korea will never be left out or unilaterally excluded from the negotiations regardless of the circumstances. That's what I think.

◆ Sin-ryul: But what do you think we should do when North Korea sent troops to this war in Ukraine and Russia right now?

◇ Lee In-young: First of all, isn't North Korea's dispatch to Ukraine against many people's wishes for peaceful development of inter-Korean relations? Furthermore, it goes against the wishes of people around the world, so it is not desirable. We need to clarify our position. And we have to check that position. At the same time, however, we should also keep our rational response cool-headed so that it does not end up in this process of aggravating inter-Korean relations and stoking tension into a more severe confrontation. That's what I think.

◆ Sin-ryul: So far, our government has not officially given Ukraine weapons of destruction. Of course, if we export shells like this to the United States in a roundabout way, there may have been such a roundabout support that the United States now locks up, but what do you think would be the impact of direct support for weapons of killing?

◇ Lee In-young: Isn't this how the two Koreas fight and go to war in Ukraine? I don't think that's desirable at all. I would say that it would be right to remain there and deal with this supportive cooperation, not a weapon of murder in Ukraine.

◆ Shin Yul: Many analysts say that North Korea's dispatch of troops to Russia will eventually affect the entire Korean Peninsula in the long run. What do you think about the adoption of a statement at the National Assembly condemning North Korea's dispatch to Russia? Resolution?

◇ Lee In-young: Well, that's a little bit more of a process of confirming the facts and clearly confirming the facts.Ma thinks it may be necessary in the process of such a response that the Korean people can feel safe and reassured through such a process. And it would be better to include such alternatives so that these processes can be resolved through more dialogue and negotiation. That's what I think.

◆ Shin Yul: What do you think of the voice of self-defense now?

◇ Lee In-young: I don't know what kind of armament it is, but I think you're talking about nuclear armament. I think that's not really desirable. First of all, it is also a process of justifying North Korea's nuclear weapons afterwards. It's also a self-imposed measure to dismantle our strategic goals for the ultimate denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula again. Also, if we have nuclear weapons, if Japan has nuclear weapons, the whole of Northeast Asia falls into a domino of nuclear weapons, and it becomes a very dangerous process that becomes not just a powder keg for conventional warfare, but some kind of powder keg for nuclear warfare. So that's not desirable and it's still right for us to strategically check those positions on denuclearization. And I think we should reflect this basic perception that not only does it increase our legitimacy, but the state already has an overwhelming advantage in terms of advanced strategic weapons and military capabilities, so we have this power to keep North Korea's denuclearization process in check until the end.

◆ Shin Yul: Okay. And what is it now? In line with that issue, the North Korean Human Rights Foundation is emerging. How do you view the launch of the North Korean Human Rights Foundation?

◇ Lee In-young: I don't know. Who would deny these wishes that the human rights of North Koreans should be improved on the human rights issue of North Korea? And that's some universal standard in the international community, but at the same time, we're in another special relationship where we have to peacefully resolve inter-Korean relations through dialogue and negotiations. So, we need wisdom to improve human rights in North Korea and improve inter-Korean relations in this way and develop them in a balanced way. I hope you take a more careful approach in that regard. This is the position.

◆ Shin-yul: Then Mrs. Kim Gun-hee, what do you think about the current special inspector and the launch of the North Korean Human Rights Foundation and approaching it separately?

◇ Lee In-young: Actually, I think the Kim Gun-hee issue has passed a little bit. These alternatives, which are managed like this through the annex, seem to have passed the statute of limitations, and now the gauge of our people's anger is already calling for an independent counsel. I think the special prosecutor is the answer.

◆ Shin Yul: Chairman Han Dong-hoon has never mentioned that, but the third-party special prosecutor was at the time of the Coporal Chae's special prosecutor, but I think lawmaker Park Jung-hoon probably said that. Anyway, when representatives Han Dong-hoon and Lee Jae-myung meet, the Dong-A Ilbo said they came out early next week. Do you think we can find a compromise like this when we meet?

◇ Lee In-young: No, so if you talked about a third-party special prosecutor because of these and other political concerns at the special prosecutor's office in Coporal Chae, you can have such a solution if you have a political concern, but I don't think this is a consistent view because you have an alternative by retreating to a special inspector. In that respect, I'm saying that if you are really willing to solve this problem from the public's perspective, it would be desirable to find a solution to the problem on this stage of the special prosecutor.

◆ Shin Yul: Actually, this could be a different or related issue, but lawmaker Lee In-young has been a politician and a minister for a long time, what do you think of Myung Tae-kyun like this?

◇ Lee In-young: I recently found out about it on the news.
◆ Shin Yul: No, but now there are some similar people in the political world. People who play that kind of role?

◇ Lee In-young: I don't know. These cases are a little rare for me. I don't know much about cases like perforation, reconstruction, and Choi Soon-sil, and when I go back to the past, I'm not sure about pollack or something like this. Usually, people we know openly play a role in the election in our party and do this through that process. There is no such thing as moving like a secret line and playing a role in the election and actually being involved in governance, so I wonder if this is a deep-rooted tradition of that party.

◆ Shin Yul: There is no specific information about what kind of governance that Myung Tae-kyun was involved in, so there are continuous suspicions that it may be related to public opinion polls.

◇ Lee In-young: Aren't these circumstances that they interfered in the election? That's governance in a broad sense. For example, he intervened in the nomination process. I recommend that if you have had a significant impact on and involved in the nomination through the polls, that is absolutely not desirable.

◆ Shin-yul: So, Myung Tae-kyun, that came out through Kang Hye-kyung's mouth. There were 27 politicians coming out, so they would be very hurt and protesting against it, but those things keep happening, so I think it would be good to leave everything and do an open primary.

◇ Lee In-young: I agree with the open primary. Political Reform Since the beginning of the election reform in 2000, I think it's good because the introduction of the primary system can be this process of electing candidates from the legitimate evaluation of voters with very healthy common sense by breaking away from money or from the interests of certain factions or from the influence of certain powerful people within a particular party. That's what we've been arguing for since then, but in our reality, there are areas where certain political parties have a strong base depending on the region, and because of those problems, we've combined the internal election and the so-called primary open primary. I think it's better to take that into consideration and boldly go to the preliminary race of the open primary. If this judgment is made, I think it's time to consider introducing it at least once.

◆ Shin Yul: If that happens, I think this kind of controversy will at least not happen.

◇ [Lee In-young] That's right. We can overcome these things where polls confirm candidates that actually go beyond the primary.

◆ Sin-ryul: But it's not fun. We have a lot of strange things coming out every week in Korea. Anyway, thank you so much for coming out even though you must be busy these days during the audit period.

◇ Lee In-young: Thank you.

◆ Shin Yul: I was Lee In Young of the Democratic Party of Korea.