Beijing-Seoul ties warm after Korean president secures promises from China

SEOUL, South Korea — 

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung returned Wednesday from a state visit to China where he had discussed contentious matters, including Yellow Sea territorial issues, Beijing’s ban on K-pop and Pyongyang’s refusal to communicate with Seoul.

Mr. Lee’s trip included a summit and banquet with President Xi Jinping, as well as a sit-down with Premier Li Qiang.

Though allied to the U.S., Mr. Lee has made improved relations with Beijing a priority since taking office last year.

For his part, Mr. Xi sought to drive a wedge between Seoul and Tokyo — both U.S. allies — on the basis of their shared history.

China is currently waging a hybrid offensive against conservative Japanese President Sanae Takaichi, who has said Japan should be prepared to defend Taiwan against China. Following diplomatic insults and bans on Japanese seafood, Beijing’s latest move is halting dual-use exports to Japan.

While Mr. Lee was in Beijing, the Chinese leader underscored the World War II ties that link China and Korea.

“More than 80 years ago, [China and Korea] made tremendous national sacrifices and won the victory against Japanese militarism,” Mr. Xi said, per state media.

Warning Mr. Lee to make the “right strategic choices,” Mr. Xi said that Beijing and Seoul should “safeguard the fruits of the victory in World War II and protect peace and stability in Northeast Asia.”

In terms of the divisive issues between Beijing and Seoul, Mr. Lee put no big wins on the table, but the optics were good. He was received with respect and said he had secured verbal commitments from China.

In South Korea, home to simmering anti-Chinese sentiment, follow-up will be carefully watched.

Mr. Lee arrived in Beijing on Sunday to a 21-gun salute, and during his Monday summit with Mr. Xi, repeated the apparently unscripted jocularity noted during their last meet, on Nov. 1 in South Korea during Mr. Xi’s first visit to the country in 11 years.

Then, after receiving a gift of smartphones from Mr. Xi, made by leading Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, Mr. Lee joked, “Are they safe?” to which Mr. Xi responded, “You can check for back doors!”

In Beijing, Mr. Lee used a Xiaomi phone to take a selfie with Mr. Xi and both their wives, praising the picture quality.

Per local reports, Mr. Lee had asked aides to activate the phone prior to his Beijing trip.

Speaking to Korean reporters Wednesday, Mr. Lee said that he had raised the issue of Chinese structures installed in the so-called Provisional Maritime Zone in the Yellow Sea.

The PMC is where the two countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones — 200 nautical miles from their respective coasts — overlap.

There has been consternation in Korea about the appearance, since 2018, of multiple structures unilaterally placed by China in the PMC: Large buoys, aqua farms and an oil rig-style installation.

Given that China has terraformed reefs and islets in the South China Sea into military bases, some Koreans are concerned the installation could be used as a weapons or aviation platform.

Quoting Chinese officials who told him it was a “management facility,” Mr. Lee said he had received a commitment that it would be withdrawn, “so I think it will be removed.”

Another vexing issue for Seoul is a de facto Chinese ban on Korean pop culture.

In 2017, China closed its doors to K-pop concerts and halted distribution of K-dramas and K-films. Those steps followed Seoul’s allowance of U.S. troops to establish a terminal high-altitude area defense system — known as a THAAD — in Korea, angering Beijing.

Though Beijing denies any official ban on K-content in China, Mr. Lee said he had discussed the issue with Mr. Xi.

In response, Mr. Xi cited two Chinese proverbs to him: “Three feet of ice does not form in a single day, nor does it melt all at once,” and “When the melon is ripe, it falls off the stem naturally.”

Mr. Lee took this to mean that the ban will be resolved in a “healthy, valuable and orderly manner,” he said.

Mr. Lee also asked Mr. Xi to serve as a mediator between the two Koreas.

Inter-Korean ties soured after a high-stakes summit between North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and first-term President Trump imploded in 2019.

Seoul’s alliance with Washington leaves it limited leeway to pursue independent initiatives toward North Korea.

Relations darkened further during the term of Mr. Lee’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol. Both Koreas accused each other of sending drones into their respective airspaces.

Currently, Mr. Kim is ignoring outreach from both Mr. Lee and Mr. Trump.

Channels with North Korea are “completely blocked so we can’t communicate at all,” Mr. Lee said, hence his request to Mr. Xi that the Chinese president “play the role of mediator.”

Mr. Xi was apparently noncommittal. “President Xi praised our efforts and said we need to be patient,” Mr. Lee said.

Experts are divided over how much sway China has over fiercely independent North Korea. Doubly so given that Pyongyang secured a 2024 mutual defense treaty with Moscow, and is enjoying expanding economic and military ties with Russia.

China failed to resolve the Korean nuclear conundrum in the past.

Beijing sponsored a series of “Six Party Talks” between 2003 and 2007 — multilateral negotiations that aimed to dissuade North Korea from going critical. Despite the long and often frustrating series of diplomatic engagements, the talks failed in their aim.

The thaw in Beijing-Seoul relations pleased Moon Chung-in, a special adviser to liberal South Korean presidents.

The “revival of summit diplomacy has very important implications” Mr. Moon told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN Wednesday.

Mr. Lee “has been championing pragmatic diplomacy based on national interest rather than values,” Mr. Moon continued.

That has seen the Korean president rejecting “good and evil in foreign policy,” and pursuing “strategic empathy” in order to “avoid misunderstandings while building trust,” Mr. Moon said.

Another pundit warned of the limitations.

“Realistically, there is no easy way for us to maintain close relations with this neighbor,” said Lee Soon-chun, former chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. Lee Soon-chun, former chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. “In my view the priority is relations with the U.S. — but with China, we can maintain pragmatic relations, especially in economic terms.”