S. Korea, China could have diplomatic security talks in Seoul

While Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Pyongyang from next Tuesday through Wednesday, South Korea and China are finalizing details to hold high-level diplomatic security talks in Seoul on Tuesday. The leaders of South Korea and China and those of North Korea and Russia will meet in Seoul and Pyongyang, respectively, on the same day. It has been 24 years since the Russian president’s visit to North Korea and nine years since the last diplomatic security talks between South Korea and China.

“Russian President Putin will visit North Korea within a few days while South Korea and China will hold strategic diplomatic security talks around the same time,” said a high-level South Korean presidential office member. The context in which the South Korean government made an unusual announcement about a foreign leader’s visit to the North while mentioning the upcoming diplomatic security talks between South Korea and China is garnering attention.

Such a decision by the South Korean government might have been based on its judgment that part of the reason why North Korea and Russia are getting close to each other, as evidenced by the Russian president’s visit to the North, is the current uncomfortable relationship between North Korea and China amid cooperative atmosphere between South Korea and China. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un believes that President Putin’s visit to the North can draw China’s attention. It is interpreted that the South Korean government is trying to keep the closer relationship between North Korea and Russia in check while highlighting the improving relationship between South Korea and China.

In fact, as its relationship with China has cooled, North Korea hurried President Putin’s visit to the country. “North Korea must have hurried the Russian president’s visit based on the judgment that losing both China and Russia, which are its key alleys, and being isolated would be the worst-case scenario,” said a high-level government source. It is believed that the North requested President Putin’s early visit based on the concern that its relationship with Russia can cool down any time once the Ukrainian war is over and Russia’s demand for North Korea’s weapons is reduced.


Jin-Woo Shin niceshin@donga.com