Yoon eyes expanded solidarity with ASEAN

President Yoon Suk Yeol smiles during a talk with young diplomats at the Korean National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of presidential office

President calls on China to play role in addressing NK's nuclear threats

By Nam Hyun-woo

President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit Indonesia and India this week to attend summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Group of 20 (G20), with a goal of putting his South Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative into practice.

The president will also be seeking to use the multilateral events as a platform to urge global cooperation to disrupt North Korea's escalating nuclear and missile threats, calling for China to play its role in exercising its influence on Pyongyang to give up its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.

Yoon will fly to Jakarta today as the first stop of his seven-day trip and will attend the South Korea-ASEAN and ASEAN Plus Three summits, focusing on expanding diplomatic engagements with ASEAN member nations based on the solidarity initiative.

Yoon announced the solidarity initiative during the previous South Korea-ASEAN Summit in November last year, as his government's basic direction of engaging ASEAN members.

The initiative is distinguishable from Seoul's previous policies toward ASEAN, which focused mostly on expanding economic partnerships with them. The new initiative states that it seeks strategic coordination and joint responses to regional and global challenges, expanding the landscape of South Korea's ties with ASEAN members.

“ASEAN is South Korea's key partner for building a free, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” Yoon said in an interview with the Associated Press, published Monday. “At the South Korea-ASEAN Summit, I will review the key achievements of the solidarity initiative, which South Korea proposed last year, and explore action plans for that initiative.”

As part of the initiative, Yoon will call for ASEAN members' greater interest regarding North Korea's missile and nuclear threats.

“At the upcoming ASEAN-related summits and the G20 Summit, I intend to urge the international community to respond resolutely to North Korea's ever-escalating missile provocations and nuclear threats and to work closely together on its denuclearization,” Yoon said.

“As long as the United Nations Security Council sanctions currently in place are implemented faithfully, North Korea's financial means for developing WMDs can be blocked to a significant extent.”

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during the South Korea-ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 11, 2022. Courtesy of presidential office

Yoon will fly to New Delhi on Friday to attend the G20 Summit and elaborate on this idea further.

Regarding the G20 Summit, Yoon said he will underscore “the need to actively deter North Korea from stealing cryptocurrency, dispatching workers overseas, facilitating maritime transshipments and other illegal activities ― the main funding sources for its nuclear and missile development.”

At the G20 Summit, Yoon will attend three sessions ― One Earth, One Family and One Future ― and stress the necessity of safeguarding the rules-based order in the face of the multiple crises that the world is facing, including the war in Ukraine.

Gaining attention on Yoon's upcoming outing is Yoon's message on China's role in deterring North Korean threats.

With Chinese Premier Li Qiang attending the ASEAN-related summits in Jakarta, initial speculation was that Chinese President Xi Jinping may attend the G20 Summit, and South Korean officials also sought to arrange a summit between Yoon and Xi.

As Xi appears to be skipping the summit, however, chances are low for a Yoon-Xi summit or a trilateral summit between South Korea, Japan and China.

“We are not in a circumstance to plan a certain talk between South Korea and China in India,” a senior official at the presidential office said.

“In terms of the ASEAN-related summit, China will send its premier and the United States will also send its vice president. I believe there will be a certain kind of talk between South Korea and China, but it is clear that we are not arranging a summit with Xi, currently.”

Against this backdrop, attention is on the ASEAN Plus Three Summit, which involves ASEAN member nations and the three countries, at which Yoon said he will “call for reinvigoration of the cooperation between ASEAN Plus Three in order to materialize the vision of the East Asian community.”

“If North Korea continues to enhance its nuclear and missile capabilities and openly violate United Nations Security Council resolutions, China, which has a responsibility to maintain international peace and stability as one of the permanent members of the Security Council, should make constructive efforts to denuclearize North Korea,” Yoon told AP.

The senior official at the presidential office also said that “there is room for cooperation” on deterring North Korea's threats “if China and Russia have the intention.”

“As North Korea opens its border, recently, its workers in China and Russia are sending the money they earned back to the regime… Also, in many cases, North Korean hackers are using Chinese banks for exchanging cryptocurrency they stole, so there is room for cooperation with China and Russia in terms of the North Korea issue,” the official said.

“China should realize that North Korea's nuclear programs have a negative effect on China's national interests by further disrupting regional order.”