{"id":2199808,"date":"2022-12-30T09:25:37","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T09:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199808"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:10:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:10:27","slug":"seouls-cautious-indo-pacific-strategy-maintains-balance-between-us-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/12\/seouls-cautious-indo-pacific-strategy-maintains-balance-between-us-and-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Seoul\u2019s cautious Indo-Pacific strategy maintains balance between US and China"},"content":{"rendered":"
South Korea\u2019s new Indo-Pacific strategy marks a closer alignment with its American ally\u2019s approach to the region, while also holding out hope that it can maintain its lucrative ties with U.S. rival China.<\/span><\/p>\n On Wednesday, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration <\/span>released<\/span><\/a> its <\/span>\u201cStrategy for a Free, Peaceful and Prosperous Indo-Pacific Region.\u201d<\/span><\/a> The 40-page document doesn\u2019t contain any surprises. Still, its careful wording and presentation reflect South Korea\u2019s approach to balancing relations between the U.S., its main security ally, and China, its main economic partner.<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> the Indo-Pacific strategy in November at the ASEAN summit in Cambodia, shortly ahead of his <\/span>first in-person meeting<\/span><\/a> with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G-20 in Indonesia. This preview not only allowed South Korea to stress the importance of ASEAN and imply Seoul\u2019s neutrality but also gave it time to see how Beijing would react before releasing the whole document.<\/span><\/p>\n When South Korea did release the document, the foreign ministry <\/span>presented<\/span><\/a> it at a gathering of over 40 diplomats, including China\u2019s Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming. But Seoul also dropped it at the end of the year, when much of the world has wound down for the holiday season, meaning that the new strategy potentially <\/span>avoided<\/span><\/a> more extensive media coverage \u2014 both good and bad.<\/span><\/p>\n On top of this, at a press briefing by a senior presidential official announcing the strategy, one reporter asserted that although they wanted to ask about the document, they didn\u2019t have adequate time to prepare questions because the government released it so late.<\/span><\/p>\n Reporters at the press briefing ended up asking far more questions about North Korea\u2019s recent <\/span>drone incursion<\/span><\/a> than about the Indo-Pacific strategy. Then again, reporters may have asked more questions about the North Korean drones because it was a better headline-grabbing story than the strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n