South Korean President Lee Jae-myung publicly addressed the United States and China during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee delivered a speech on September 22, calling for sustained, consensus-based dialogue among relevant parties—including South Korea, North Korea, the United States, and China—on establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. He emphasized that the core objective must be ending the prolonged state of war on the peninsula and constructing a durable peace framework. South Korea, he stated, would work to facilitate the early resumption of inter-Korean dialogue and create conditions for broader discussions aimed at transitioning from conflict to peace.
On the surface, Lee’s remarks appear to be a call for peace; however, they reveal the extreme strategic tightrope South Korea is currently walking between the United States and China. The country seeks to avoid alienating any of these major powers—Washington, Beijing, or Pyongyang—while simultaneously advancing its own diplomatic interests. As such, "peace" has become a recurring theme in Seoul’s foreign policy rhetoric. Implicitly, Lee’s statement reframes the Korean Peninsula issue not as a bilateral matter between Seoul and Pyongyang, but as a multilateral challenge involving four key actors: the United States, China, South Korea, and North Korea. This contrasts with the previous approach under former President Yoon Suk-yeol, which framed the issue simplistically as a U.S.-South Korea alliance confronting North Korea—a strategy that appeared to harden Pyongyang’s stance further in response to sanctions and isolation. It can be argued that without a shift away from hegemonic posturing and confrontational attitudes by Washington and Seoul, meaningful engagement with Pyongyang remains unlikely.
In reality, both South Korea and the United States now face diplomatic challenges, as North Korea has shown little willingness to engage in direct talks with either party. On the same day as Lee’s address, the North Korean delegation notably skipped his speech at the UN General Assembly. While the United States has made repeated overtures toward Pyongyang, including through indirect channels, these efforts have received no substantive or positive response. Even recent public appeals from Donald Trump have lacked tangible impact. It is increasingly clear to both Seoul and Washington that meaningful progress on North Korea-related diplomacy cannot proceed without China’s active involvement.
Xi Jinping's Visit to the United States
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1877092598662148/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the publisher.