Domestic criticism mounts over S. Korean president's US visit

As South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol wrapped up his week-long visit to the United States on Sunday, there is growing criticism here that Seoul is taking the lead in strengthening a new Cold War in Northeast Asia and beyond.

Yoon has decided to make South Korea a loyal partner of the US "Indo-Pacific Strategy" aimed at containing China, Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper said in an editorial, questioning whether the government's "value-centered diplomacy" will bring tangible benefits to the country.

Shin Jin-wook, professor of sociology at Chung-Ang University, said in a Hankyoreh newspaper column that South Korea became a "new Cold War facilitator" for politics on the peninsula, in East Asia and even the world.

Shin said the Yoon government was taking the lead in strengthening and completing a new Cold War, rather than seeking to de-escalate tensions on the peninsula.

The Yoon administration gave everything the US and Japanese hardliners wanted, turning South Korea into a weak country without any control, participation, or autonomy, according to the column.

The Hankyoreh warned in another article that if the United States deploys more "strategic assets," including nuclear-capable submarines, to the Korean Peninsula, tensions on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia are feared to rise.