HANKYOREH

APLN Vice Chair Chung-in Moon highlights that there is a critical need to fundamentally rethink Korea-China relations from a pragmatic perspective.

China has traditionally advocated peace and stability and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and called for resolving issues through dialogue and diplomacy. But it has taken a hands-off approach to the recent rise of military tensions on the peninsula.

When I criticized China’s passivity, my contacts in Beijing responded much as they have in the past. They said that the Chinese government has already presented a solution that should be acceptable to South Korea, North Korea and the US: namely, simultaneously halting South Korea-US joint military exercises and North Korean nuclear weapon and missile tests and simultaneously moving toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of a peace regime there. But since South Korea and the US have rejected that proposal and barged ahead with a hard-line stance toward North Korea, there’s nothing else for China to do.

Coming after China’s trilateral summit with South Korea and Japan and its resumption of dialogue with South Korea, my Chinese contacts’ attitudes are likely to disappoint observers both in South Korea and other countries. That’s why the future of Seoul-Beijing relations looks so bleak.

Emphasizing principles, strengthening the ROK-US alliance, and augmenting trilateral cooperation with the US and Japan may be necessary, but they’re unlikely to resolve South Korea’s outstanding issues with China. There’s a critical need to fundamentally rethink Korea-China relations from a pragmatic perspective, and from the perspective of the national interest.

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Image: On May 27, 2024 (local time), Prime Minister Kishida attended the Japan-China-ROK Trilateral Summit together with Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Qiang and President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Seok-yeol. Wikimedia Commons