The North Korean nuclear negotiator and the envoy’s inauguration ceremony next month are likely to deliver a message on the occasion of their visit to Korea
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(Beijing = Yonhap News) Correspondent Jo Jun-hyung = As the schedule for US President Joe Biden’s trip to Korea and Japan is confirmed, China’s check system is in full swing.
In the event of the Korea-US summit held right following the inauguration of the Yun Seok-yeol administration, which made strengthening the ROK-US alliance as the core of foreign and security policies, it seems that they are watching the possibility that Korean diplomacy will change rapidly from the Moon Jae-in administration’s ‘balance’ strategy with the US and the public.
In particular, special attention is being paid to the Quad (a consultative body of the United States, Japan, Australia, and India), which is a key keyword for President Biden’s visit to Korea and Japan and at the same time that President-elect Yoon promised gradual participation during his candidacy.
When asked to comment on President Biden’s visit to South Korea and Japan at a regular briefing on the 28th, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Wang Won-bin said, “We must not undermine mutual trust and cooperation between regional countries by creating a closed and exclusive small group.”
Then, spokesperson Wang emphasized that Quad is “full of old Cold War thinking” and that “the color of military confrontation is deep, and it will not win the hearts of people because it goes once morest the current of the times.”
He did not hide that he viewed the Korea-US summit, the US-Japan summit, and the quad summit as a frame of ‘US pressure on China’.
In particular, it seems possible to evaluate that the mention of Quad is deeply implied to contain not only the United States and Japan, but also a check on the next government in Korea, which has pledged to participate in the Quad.
Recently, Chinese state-run media and experts are in a similar vein. One following another, voices urged the United States to strike a balance between the United States and China by maintaining strategic autonomy rather than participating in the US encirclement of China.
(Tokyo = Yonhap News) A delegation to Japan, dispatched by President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, including Vice Chairman Jeong Jin-seok of the National Assembly, meets with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Prime Minister’s Office on the 26th. Vice-Chairman of the government, who is the head of the delegation, delivers a letter from President-elect Yoon to Prime Minister Kishida. 2022.4.26 [한일 정책협의대표단 제공, 재판매 및 DB 금지] sewonlee@yna.co.kr
According to the Global Times, a state-run English newspaper on the 27th, Dazugang, director of the Northeast Asian Institute of the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, spoke regarding Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s emphasis on the ‘Strategic alliance between Korea, the US and Japan’ at a meeting with South Korean officials on the 26th. “Sida’s remarks are intended to bring South Korea into the quad, and to encourage cooperation on Russia and Ukraine issues.”
In addition, Shang Haoyu, a visiting researcher at the Asia Pacific Institute at the China Institute of International Studies, said in an article on the Global Times on the 27th, “If South Korea becomes involved in the US deterrence of China and the drive to pressure North Korea, it will lose strategic autonomy and become strategically involved in the US competition with China. It will be reduced to Go stone.”
Researcher Shang argued that “the THAAD should be a lesson” and that South Korea can increase its independent influence only when it has foreign strategic autonomy and independence.
Under this circumstance, diplomats are paying attention to the visit of Chinese government officials to Korea early next month.
This is because China will try to use the visit of government officials as an opportunity to deliver their message.
Liu Xiaoming, Special Representative for the Korean Peninsula Affairs of the Chinese government, will visit Korea on the 3rd of next month to discuss with his counterpart Noh Kyu-deok, head of the Korean Peninsula Peace Relations Headquarters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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It is noteworthy whether Special Representative Ryu, who is in charge of issues on the Korean Peninsula, including the North Korean nuclear issue, will deliver a message to the effect that the gradual participation in the quad included in Yun’s pledge and the additional deployment of THAAD will have a negative impact on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.
In addition, the actions of Chinese officials who are expected to visit Korea to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony on May 10 are also expected to attract attention. There are speculations that China will try to convey China’s position to the new South Korean government ahead of the Korea-US summit by sending a heavy-duty person.
jhcho@yna.co.kr
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2022/04/29 12:22 Send