The 70-year-old alliance between the United States and South Korea has sustained a fragile peace that has allowed a new nation established on the ideals of free-market democracy to flourish, said South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in a speech to Congress.
And now, at a "decisive moment" in history, South Korea would utilize its economic might as a "compass of freedom for citizens all over the world," he declared during a 45-minute address in which he referenced U.S. Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy were both presidents.
No country, according to Yoon, exemplifies the benefits of adopting the "right path" to democracy rather than the "wrong path" to totalitarianism promoted by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
"There is one regime determined to pursue the wrong path," he warned, alluding to Kim Jong Un's regime in North Korea. "There is a significant difference. North Korea has abandoned the pursuit of liberty and development."
Yoon talked of "unprecedented and horrifying" stories of mistreatment from over 500 defectors over the last five years, including persons shot by firing squads for breaking COVID-19 regulations, viewing South Korean television programs, and "possessing the Bible and having faith."
Kim's communist cadre has impoverished and chained North Koreans in order to construct an arsenal of around 20 nuclear warheads and perform threatening missile tests to supplement threatening rhetoric towards South Korea, Japan, and the United States.
"North Korea's obsession with nuclear weapons and missiles [has] thrown] its population into severe crisis and human rights violations," Yoon said, urging democracies to "raise global awareness of the gravity of North Korea's human rights violations," particularly as the threat of famine looms.
