Lee to seek Beijing’s support on N. Korea, economic cooperation during January trip

President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping drink Horangi draft yuja makgeolli at the gala dinner for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting at the Lahan Select hotel in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Oct. 31. Yonhap

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is expected to seek common ground with Beijing on issues such as North Korea’s nuclear program and sanctions during his January trip, while also working to steady bilateral ties in hopes of creating a more predictable external environment for the country’s economy and businesses, according to experts.

Lee is set to visit China in early January, marking his first trip to the country since taking office in June. It is the first visit to China by a sitting South Korean president since Moon Jae-in attended the Korea-Japan-China summit in 2019.

The upcoming visit follows Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to South Korea in late October for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting — Xi’s first visit to Korea since 2014. Although details have yet to be announced by either side, a South Korean official said earlier that the two countries were in talks and more information would be made public shortly.

Raising further anticipation for Lee’s visit, South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo held a strategic vice-ministerial dialogue with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu in Beijing last week.

The two officials discussed “mutual issues of interest, including the West Sea issue,” as well as “regional and international situations, including the Korean Peninsula,” according to the South Korean foreign ministry. Notably, this was the first such consultation since their last meeting in July of last year.

Experts said that during the upcoming trip, the Lee administration is likely to seek Beijing’s help in bringing Pyongyang back to the negotiating table, as communication between the two Koreas remains at a standstill.

Niu Xiaoping, a Korean Peninsula specialist at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said that the exchange of visits by the two countries’ leaders within just three months underscores their commitment to deepening ties.

Prospects are also growing for a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump — who last met in 2019 — on the occasion of Trump’s planned April visit to China for talks with Xi. Trump may seek to reengage with North Korea to secure a diplomatic victory ahead of the November midterm congressional elections.

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Panmunjeom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. Yonhap-Reuters.

According to Niu, Seoul views Trump’s April visit as a critical moment that could shape the future trajectory of the Korean Peninsula.

“Seoul is eager to reach a consensus with Beijing on key issues such as the North Korean nuclear program and sanctions, while also seeking China’s support and cooperation in facilitating U.S.-North Korea dialogue and inter-Korean talks,” she added.

Kang Jun-young, a professor of Chinese studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said that Lee may use his trip to press China to take action on North Korea’s nuclear program, noting that the issue was absent from Beijing’s latest policy white paper and from Washington’s most recent National Security Strategy.

“President Lee may deliver a message to China, urging it to place greater focus on the issue of denuclearization,” he said. “However, Beijing is in a delicate position now. Pyongyang has declared itself a nuclear weapons state. Any push from China for denuclearization is likely to fall on deaf ears in Pyongyang. Even if China were to exert pressure, it would likely prove ineffective.”

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Unification are at odds over their approach to North Korea. The Ministry of Unification advocates for a North Korea-focused, inter-Korean bilateral strategy, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prioritizes an international coordination framework led by the United States.

The unification ministry is not participating in the consultative talks between Seoul and Washington that commenced last week.

“Clarifying the priority of policy goals toward North Korea is a pressing issue [South] Korea needs to address, which would also enable better cooperation with China,” Niu said.

She added that visiting China before his confirmed Japan trip in mid-January demonstrated Lee’s balanced approach and avoided the perception of favoring Japan.

“It is possible that Lee hopes to act as a ‘mediator’ or ‘messenger,’ seeking a potential breakthrough for future trilateral cooperation,” she said.

Adding to the anticipation, major South Korean conglomerate leaders are expected to accompany Lee on his visit, with a business delegation of around 200 executives set to travel to Beijing. This marks the first South Korean business delegation to visit China since December 2019.

Liu Ziyang, a professor of global business at Kyonggi University, said that Lee’s subsequent visit to China could help solidify and institutionalize the political consensus achieved at the previous meeting.

“One of Lee’s core objectives for the China trip is to stabilize expectations in bilateral relations, so as to create a more predictable external environment for South Korea’s economy and businesses,” he added.

In the last meeting, Xi called for bilateral cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), biopharmaceuticals, green industries and the silver economy.

A television screen at a train station in Seoul shows a news broadcast of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Nov. 1. Yonhap-AFP.

Liu noted that cooperation in high-tech industries could become one of the most practical breakthroughs for China and South Korea, with both nations likely to pursue “selective cooperation under limited competition.”

“South Korea and China face both competition and strong complementarities in sectors such as semiconductors, new materials, AI and life sciences. Their industrial supply chains have been deeply intertwined for years, making a complete ‘decoupling’ economically and technologically unrealistic,” he said.

He added that this type of high-tech collaboration is driven by industrial efficiency, technological advancement and market demand, making it a natural area for mutual cooperation that relies less on external conditions.

“Overall, this visit should be understood as a pragmatic, risk management-oriented initiative, helping to provide a more stable and predictable framework for South Korea-China ties,” Liu said.

Despite renewed diplomatic momentum, thorny issues remain, including Seoul’s U.S.-backed plan to build nuclear-powered submarines and Beijing’s expanding presence in the West Sea.

Progress is being made on the nuclear-powered submarine deal, as Seoul plans to equip its submarines with reactors using low-enriched fuel at levels of 20 percent or less. Korea and the U.S. have agreed to pursue a separate agreement to formalize the process, with working-level discussions scheduled for early next year.

In the North, Kim recently made an on-site inspection of an 8,700-ton nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine, which is currently under construction. According to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, Kim called Seoul’s submarine plan an offensive act and a threat to North Korea, while vowing to strengthen its own nuclear submarine capabilities.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un conducts an on-site inspection of the nation's submarine under construction, in this photo released by Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency, Thursday. Yonhap

Kang noted that South Korea is a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and is under strict oversight from international monitoring agencies, unlike some others.

“If Beijing takes a lenient or noncritical approach toward North Korea (on its nuclear-powered submarine) while directing criticism at South Korea, it would be unacceptable for Seoul,” he added.

Niu noted that if the nuclear-powered submarine issue and West Sea disputes are not effectively communicated and managed in advance, they could become triggers for tensions in China-South Korea relations.

Alyssa Chen is a reporter with the South China Morning Post. She is currently based in Seoul, writing for both The Korea Times and the South China Morning Post under an exchange program.