The president says his focus is on pragmatic diplomacy that safeguards the public and national interests
Seoul will move “swiftly” to improve ties with Beijing and Moscow to “protect peace and people’s lives”, according to South Korea’s president.
Marking his first month in office on Thursday, Lee Jae-myung said that one of his government’s priorities was to ensure the “safety and peaceful” lives of the South Korean people, stressing that “peace is the minimum prerequisite for national stability and happiness”.
Lee said he believed in a “virtuous cycle of peace”, pledging to maintain a “firm” alliance with the United States, as well as to improve ties with China and Russia. This was reflected in Pyongyang’s favourable response to his government’s decision to suspend Seoul’s loudspeaker propaganda efforts near the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas, he said.
China has also reportedly invited the South Korean president to attend a military parade in Beijing in September to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
According to the South Korean Presidential Office, Lee is reviewing the possibility of taking part in the event, and Seoul and Beijing are communicating about the issue.
In 2015, then-South Korean president Park Geun-hye attended the parade, a decision that caused friction between Seoul and Washington.
Lee, of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea, is widely seen as friendlier towards Beijing than his conservative predecessors, who put greater emphasis on South Korea’s alliance with the US and trilateral ties with Washington and Tokyo.
He was criticised on the election trail last year when he accused then-South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol of jeopardising trade relations with Beijing through unnecessary provocation. He also said he opposed “bothering” Beijing by interfering in the Taiwan Strait.
On Thursday, Lee vowed that South Korea was ready to deal with provocation from the North.
“South Korea boasts the world’s fifth-largest military power. It is also one of the global military powers, spending 1.4 times more on defence than North Korea’s annual GDP,” Lee said.
“Based on its strong defence power, we will thoroughly prepare for provocations, while resuming the severed communication between the South and the North, and open the way to peace and coexistence on the Korean peninsula through dialogue and cooperation.
“Based on the strong ROK [Republic of Korea]-US alliance, close ROK-US-Japan cooperation, while also swiftly improving relations with China and Russia, we will protect peace and the lives of our people through pragmatic diplomacy centred on national interests.”
Lee also said he would meet as many world leaders as he could during his term, stressing that South Korea’s economic growth and development depended on international trade.
On the question of security cooperation with Japan, Lee said there were “many sensitive issues” in relations with Tokyo. He described the two countries as “close but distant” neighbours with an “inseparable relationship” and a shared front yard.
South Korea and Japan were also both part of the liberal democratic camp and exposed to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, he said.
“There are many common interests in strategic and military terms, and there is also much room for economic cooperation, and we must cooperate,” Lee said.
However, Lee also cited disputes over Japan’s past and a group of islets, known as the Dokdo or Takeshima, in waters between the two countries as potential obstacles in their relationship.
“I don’t think we need to mix these two things [cooperation and obstacles] up. I think we need to have a flexible and rational attitude … to leave the issue as it is. That is, even in times of war, we do diplomacy, we talk, we cooperate. Even when we fight with our right hands, we hold each other’s left hands,” Lee said.
He said Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seemed wary of him during a meeting at the G7 Summit last month, but there was “no necessity” to feel that way and that South Korea and Japan had many areas for cooperation.
“There are of course things we can cooperate on in terms of security issues in response to North Korea’s nuclear missiles. We need to find ways to help each other,” Lee said.
“There are also many things we can cooperate on economically, in ways that are helpful to each other. It’s not a relationship where ‘the other side suffers a loss and I benefit from that loss’, but rather something where the other side benefits and we benefit.”
