South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol returned to Seoul on Monday following a week-long visit to Indonesia and India, where he attended ASEAN and G20 summit meetings. Yoon took part in multiple multilateral consultations such as the East Asia Summit, and also had around 20 bilateral meetings with foreign leaders in Jakarta and New Delhi.
At the ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Yoon’s focus was to urge the international community, particularly the P5 nations of the U.N. Security Council including China and Russia, to collaborate in addressing North Korea threats. He argued that the DPRK’s nuclear weapons could potentially strike any of the member states present at the summit. Yoon’s foreign minister Park Jin met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during the G20 summit and callled for Moscow’s “constructive role” in DPRK-related issues at the Security Council.
At the G20, Yoon committed $2.3 billion in additional aid for Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction efforts. The initial $300 million will be provided next year as humanitarian aid, and the remaining $2 billion will be disbursed as low-interest loans through the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) starting in 2025. Yoon’s attention was also on showcasing South Korea’s commitment to sustainable development, pledging an additional $300 million to the U.N. Green Climate Fund to support developing countries that are susceptible to climate-related disasters.
Why It Matters
During his attendance at the ASEAN and G20 summits, Yoon aimed to enhance the ROK’s global standing as a responsible and developed country through multi-billion-dollar pledges, to which the South Korean public has yet to react. The South Korean president also sought to address Chinese concerns over strengthened security ties between the U.S., ROK and Japan — which Beijing criticized as a trilateral security built at the “expense of other countries’ security interests.” Efforts to improve relations with China are being quickly followed up by top South Korean officials, such as the National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong who reiterated an invitation to Xi Jinping to visit Seoul on Monday.
However, the summits have left Yoon with unresolved issues concerning relations with Russia. Put in a larger context, India, the host country of last week’s G20 summit did not invite Ukraine, vowing not to let Kyiv overshadow the summit. The summit ultimately concluded with a consensus statement that condemned the use of force for territorial acquisition but stopped short of specifically condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia hailed the statement as a “step in the right direction” and a “milestone” win. International media have referred to it as a “watered-down” statement signaling a growing divide between the Global South and the U.S.-led regions, including South Korea.
Amid an increasingly segmented international security landscape, South Korea faces additional variables in its security calculations this week. After days of media speculation, the Kremlin and North Korean state media on Monday night confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin invited DPRK leader Kim Jong Un to visit in the coming days. The pressure caused by Russia’s reported plans to increase military technology and other support to North Korea — and in the most extreme case, an option to reinstate Soviet-era military alliance status with Pyongyang — could strain South Korea’s diplomatic strategy to strengthen security ties with Japan and the U.S.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol returned to Seoul on Monday following a week-long visit to Indonesia and India, where he attended ASEAN and G20 summit meetings. Yoon took part in multiple multilateral consultations such as the East Asia Summit, and also had around 20 bilateral meetings with foreign leaders in Jakarta and New Delhi.
At the ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Yoon’s focus was to urge the international community, particularly the P5 nations of the U.N. Security Council including China and Russia, to collaborate in addressing North Korea threats. He argued that the DPRK’s nuclear weapons could potentially strike any of the member states present at the summit. Yoon’s foreign minister Park Jin met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during the G20 summit and callled for Moscow’s “constructive role” in DPRK-related issues at the Security Council.
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