Political uncertainty to hinder Seoul's diplomacy toward Washington, Beijing as Trump 2.0 begins
Published: 20 Jan. 2025, 17:38
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- LIM JEONG-WON
- [email protected]
![U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a rally ahead of the 60th presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 19. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/01/20/67c398ff-2ce8-488e-9bc1-a0d49889c0a5.jpg)
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a rally ahead of the 60th presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 19. [AP/YONHAP]
As Donald Trump kicks off his second term in office Monday, Seoul is paying close attention to how U.S.-China strategic competition — a key variable in setting the coordinates for Korean diplomacy — will unfold.
Trump, who is promoting his “Make America Great Again” vision, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who espouses the “Chinese dream,” are expected to compete for global hegemony. But for now, they appear to be avoiding a head-on collision and are in the stages of exploring each other’s motives and stances.
The U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Trump expressed his intention to visit China within the first 100 days of his second term. On Sunday, Trump announced that he would postpone the implementation of a ban on the Chinese social media platform TikTok.
China, in turn, has shown regard for Trump, sending Vice President Han Zheng, the eighth-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party, as a special envoy to Trump's inauguration when the U.S. president-elect broke convention and invited Xi to the event. These gestures show a sign of temporary reconciliation between Washington and Beijing.
For Korea, where security interests overlap significantly with Japan's, domestic political uncertainty may hinder its response to developments in the United States and China.
While the United States and China are passing through what appears to be the calm before the storm, Japan is quickly engaging in high-level diplomacy with Washington and Beijing. On Dec. 25 last year, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visited China and met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and agreed to push for Wang’s visit to Tokyo early this year.
Iwaya will also attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday and meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who has just completed his confirmation hearing — on Tuesday and attend the Quad foreign minister’s meeting.
The Quad is a security consultative body between the United States, Australia, India and Japan.
With Korea unable to engage in summit diplomacy for the time being, Japan could be asked to act as a messenger of goodwill to protect Korea’s diplomatic position by linking Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation. However, there are concerns that Seoul could face diplomatic limits in this regard.
![U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a dinner at the Building Museum in Washington on Jan. 19. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/01/20/49842839-5236-4c0d-9973-e1d3913dfec6.jpg)
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a dinner at the Building Museum in Washington on Jan. 19. [AP/YONHAP]
“If Japan strongly ties itself with the Trump administration during his second term while Korea’s summit diplomacy is missing, the very levels of the U.S.-Japan alliance and the Korea-U.S. alliance could change,” said Lee Byung-chul, professor at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.
There are also reports that Trump, who has mentioned nothing publically so far about the political situation in Korea, made a jab at it behind closed doors.
“Everyone calls me chaotic, but look at South Korea,” Trump jokingly said during an event at Mar-a-Lago in the weeks between his election in November and Monday, according to a report by American broadcaster CBS.
A former high-ranking South Korean Foreign Ministry official pointed out that “neither the United States nor China will show sincerity and try to deal with an interim government.”
However, the Korean government said it plans to fill the vacuum in normal diplomacy by promoting a Korea-U.S. foreign ministers’ meeting through Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul’s early visit to Washington.
Meanwhile, as the vacancy of the Korean ambassador to China continues, questions are being raised about whether the outpost of public diplomacy with Beijing is operating normally.
The formal appointment of former presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki, who was nominated as the Korean Ambassador to China in October last year, has been effectively nullified due to the impeachment situation.
![Korean lawmakers, including chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee Kim Seok-ki, pose for a photo at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on their way to Washington on Jan. 18. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/01/20/5d03ee0f-bd62-43e5-9b92-9139f7c0e316.jpg)
Korean lawmakers, including chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee Kim Seok-ki, pose for a photo at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on their way to Washington on Jan. 18. [YONHAP]
Ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday, a bipartisan delegation of Korean lawmakers who had departed to the United States for the inauguration met with key political figures in Washington to discuss issues in both countries.
Lawmakers from the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee met with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday and shared views on bilateral relations and urged continued interest in strengthening the Korea-U.S. alliance, according to People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon.
Korea will be officially represented by Ambassador to Washington Cho Hyun-dong at Trump’s inauguration, while a PPP delegation that includes Vice President of Strategy and Planning Cho Jung-hun and senior spokesperson Kim Dai-sik, both of whom received personal invitations to the inauguration ceremony and the dinner ball, will also be present.
BY LIM JEONG-WON, PARK HYUN-JU [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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