S Korea’s Lee to Court China on N Korea and Economic Stability During January Visit

By Staff, Agencies

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is expected to use his upcoming January trip to China to seek Beijing’s cooperation on North Korea’s nuclear issue and sanctions, while also working to stabilize bilateral relations to support South Korea’s economic and business environment, analysts say.

Lee’s visit, scheduled for early January, will be his first trip to China since taking office in June and the first by a sitting South Korean president since former President Moon Jae-in attended the Korea–Japan–China summit in 2019.

The trip follows Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to South Korea in late October for the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, his first visit to the country since 2014.

While neither side has released detailed plans for the visit, South Korean officials have said consultations are ongoing and that further information will be announced soon. Expectations were heightened after South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo held strategic talks in Beijing last week with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu.

According to South Korea’s foreign ministry, the two sides discussed shared concerns, including the West Sea issue, as well as broader regional and international matters involving the Korean Peninsula. The meeting marked the first such high-level consultation since July of last year.

Experts believe the Lee administration will seek China’s assistance in encouraging Pyongyang to return to dialogue, as inter-Korean communication remains stalled.

Niu Xiaoping, a specialist on the Korean Peninsula at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said the exchange of visits between the two countries’ leaders within a three-month period reflects a shared interest in strengthening bilateral ties.

Attention is also growing around the possibility of renewed engagement between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, who last met in 2019.

Such a development could coincide with Trump’s planned April visit to China for talks with Xi, with observers suggesting Trump may pursue renewed diplomacy with Pyongyang ahead of the November midterm congressional elections.