WASHINGTON: Although China is South Korea’s main trading partner, Seoul’s tightening relations with the United States and other wealthy countries reveal its interest in countering Beijing’s economic coercion, experts said.
According to Voice of America, after a monthlong diplomacy effort that included summits with the United States and G-7 leaders, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said at a hearing in Seoul that “reducing our reliance on China” and “diversifying our trading partners will support our economy.”
President Yoon Suk Yeol held a cabinet meeting on Monday after the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. He said he “secured the basis of cooperation” with G-7 countries, including Australia, Canada, and Germany, on “safeguarding supply chain networks” in critical minerals and semiconductors.
Japan invited South Korea to the May 19-21 summit as a nonmember of the G-7, which consists of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
At the Hiroshima summit, the members — seven of the international wealthiest countries — announced in a joint communique that they would “foster economic resilience” and counter Beijing’s “economic coercion” and “malign practices” by “de-risking and diversifying” their trade away from China.
In a separate statement released on the same day, they said countries making “attempts to weaponise economic dependencies” would “face consequences,” without naming any countries.
Experts said Yoon’s participation at the summit, where the G-7 countries unified against China’s economic coercion, and his close alignment with Washington implies that Seoul has joined their efforts.
“The Yoon government seeks to join Washington and other partners in addressing supply chain and other economic security issues,” said Andrew Yeo, the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies at the Brookings Institution.
“This may entail Seoul joining Washington to few degrees in countering Chinese economic coercion, but the Yoon government would still move cautiously on how it navigates problems like export controls directed against China,” Yeo continued.
VOA’s Korean Service contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment on the G-7’s efforts to counter economic coercion and South Korea’s participation at the G-7 summit. It was referred to comments made at a Chinese Foreign Ministry news briefing.
At the briefing, Wang Wenbin, a ministry spokesperson, accused the United States of being “the very origin of coercive diplomacy.”
