OPINION:
On the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, the state visit of President Yoon Suk Yeol is an opportunity to reflect on past challenges and successes and strategize on upcoming challenges and opportunities to enhance the alliance and contribute to world peace.
Indeed, South Korea is a model for all countries. From a country devastated by the Korean War that ended with an Armistice on July 27, 1953, to a dynamic liberal democracy with the 10th largest GDP and a world leader in mobile phones, semiconductors, automobiles, chemicals, music and cinema. The “miracle of the Han River” is testimony to what a free market economy, tethered to the rule of law and the universal values that undergird its democracy, is capable of accomplishing.
President Yoon’s first year in office has been impressive. He has worked hard to strengthen South Korea’s allied relationship with the U.S. He has reached out to Japan, holding the first summit in over a decade with Japanese Prime minister Kishida Fumio in mid-March. These and other initiatives have contributed to South Korea’s status as a “global pivotal state”, having been invited to the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in May 2023, with the potential for an eventual invitation to join the G7, making it a G8.
An understandable priority for the Yoon administration is relations with North Korea. Despite North Korea’s refusal to engage with South Korea and the U.S. the Yoon administration has reached out to North Korea with its “audacious initiative” to help Pyongyang develop its economy. According to a Ministry of Unification White Paper published in April 2023, the priority is efforts to denuclearize North Korea, normalize inter-Korean ties, improve the North’s human rights records, and prepare for unification. These are impressive goals, certainly shared by the U.S. and others.
Given North Korea’s race to build more nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver these nuclear weapons, the Yoon administration has worked closely with the Biden administration to enhance efforts to contain and deter North Korea, while reaching out to Pyongyang to provide humanitarian assistance and engage in a dialogue. To date, North Korea has rebuffed South Korea’s and the U.S.’s outreach. Joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises have resumed, to ensure that the Joint Command can respond to any military provocation from the North.
The state visit of President Yoon and discussions with President Biden come at a critically important time. Tension on the Korean Peninsula is at an all-time high, with North Korea building more tactical and strategic nuclear weapons and an array of ballistic missiles capable of delivering these weapons of mass destruction. The recent launch of a solid fuel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) the Hwasong 18 reportedly capable of reaching the whole of the U.S. is indicative of Pyongyang’s efforts to threaten all countries.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Celebrating 70 Years: The United States & South Korea Alliance
Since the Korean War, China has had a long-allied relationship with North Korea, with an extant Peace and Friendship Treaty between the two countries. China’s President Xi Jinping, in a recent message to Kim Jong-un, stressed the traditional friendship between China and North Korea, noting that “the international and regional situations are now changing seriously and in a complicated way and I am willing to strengthen strategic communications with Comrade General Secretary Kim, jointly lead the direction of development of China-DPRK relations, and promote friendly cooperation between the two sides to a higher level,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.
China has significant leverage with North Korea, given their allied relationship and North Korea’s reliance on the crude oil, petroleum products and trade with China. Indeed, North Korea’s economic survival depends on China. And it is this leverage, and China’s previous role as the host of the Six Party Talks with North Korea from 2003-2009 that hopefully will convince China to use its significant influence with North Korea to get the North to return to negotiations with the U.S. and South Korea and refrain from additional nuclear tests and missile launches.
China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, with 26% of its exports in 2022, followed by the U.S. with 16%. China has reached out to South Korea, based on a relationship of mutual benefits, given their trade and economic relationship and concern for nuclear developments with North Korea. In that context, China facilitating a dialogue between the two Koreas would be an appropriate gesture to the South.
Also on the likely agenda will be South Korea’s concern with the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act and media speculation in the South about U.S. protectionism. Addressing these concerns will be an important part of these discussions.
The state visit of President Yoon Suk Yeol will be an opportunity for the leaders of both countries to recommit to an enduring allied relationship.
• Ambassador Joseph R. DeTrani is the former Special Envoy for Negotiations with North Korea and the former Director of the National Counterproliferation Center. The views are the author’s and not any U.S. Government agency or department.
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