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The newly-elected President of South Korea, Lee Jae-myong, called Beijing today to solicit help in bringing about his policy of “pragmatic diplomacy,” following calls to close allies United States and Japan.
In a call lasting approximately half an hour, Lee expressed the desire for better relations and closer cooperation with China in a variety of fields, singling out a “denuclearized peninsula” for special mention.
Following the calamitous final months of Yoon Suk-yeol’s presidency, it’s hardly a surprise that the liberal democrat party took back power in Seoul. Yoon’s tenure was marred by scandals and resignations, and ended shortly after declaring martial law and being impeached.
Snap elections elevated one of the architects of Yoon’s impeachment, Lee, to the presidency by a healthy margin of victory. Previously holding the position of party president for the South Korean dems, Lee was born to a poor family before entering politics after a factory accident left him partially disabled.
In entering the highest office of his country, he’s promised to uphold many previously-implemented policies from democratic presidents in the past, and called for improving ties with Beijing.
Not only that, but he’s asserted that South Korea needs to maintain distance from sensitive diplomatic issues between China and the US, and China and Taiwan.
“There is no reason to narrow our range of movement by choosing one or the other side,” he said back in 2021. “It is competent diplomacy to make the US and China choose to cooperate with us”.
In 2024, he criticized Yoon’s policy of interference, and advocated saying “‘xie xie’ [to China] and ‘xie xie’ to Taiwan as well,” referring to the Chinese word for ‘thank you’. “Why do we interfere in cross-strait [China-Taiwan] relations?”
Closer to home, Lee has said he will maintain the Sunshine Policy of his predecessors, which resulted in the summit between Moon Jae-in, Kim Jong-un, and Donald Trump in 2021, and the resulting Panmunjom Declaration—perhaps the closest point since the Korean War to a true stabilization of relations between South and North.
The call with Xi
According to Yonhap, President Lee asked Chinese President Xi directly to play a constructive role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Lee’s spokesman said that Xi told the president that China will make efforts to resolve the issue, saying that “promoting peace and stability on the peninsula would serve as mutual interests for both South Korea and China”.
China is about the only country on Earth that can intervene on South Korea’s behalf regarding their estranged kin to the north. Relations during the Yoon presidency had been buried in a cemetery—such that North Korea bombed the reconciliation and meeting center along the DMZ.
Lee invited Xi to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, slated for November in the South Korean city of Gyeongju.
“Lee expressed hope that South Korea and China will actively promote exchanges and cooperation in various areas, including the economy, security, culture and people-to-people exchanges, based on the spirit of mutual benefit and equality,” the spokesman said.
According to the Xinhua report on the call, Xi noted that over the past 33 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have transcended differences in ideology and social systems, something which he urged Lee to continue—and which he referred to as a “trend of the times”.
Xi also urged Seoul and Beijing to jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and ensure stable and smooth global and regional industrial supply chains, the report said.
The issue of trade will be a fascinating flashpoint in Lee’s upcoming presidency. South Korea is reportedly reeling from the 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum imposed and then abruptly doubled by President Trump. South Korea’s steel exports to the US reached about $250 million in April alone.
China has stood firm against the recent upheaval in the trade status quo by President Trump’s tariffs, and there’s no doubt that the comments made by Xi reflect his desire to pry Asia further away from the US. South Korea is split between the two, with America as her only treaty ally in a strategic sense, and China her largest trading partner. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: President Lee Jae-myung on the phone with President Xi Jinping. PC: Blue House, press handout.
