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| U.S. President Joe Biden, left, participates in a Quad summit remotely with Indo-Pacific nation leaders at the White House, Washington, D.C., March 12. Reuters-Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
Ahead of the summit between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden later this week, Korea appears to be leaning toward participating in the U.S.-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) partially, as the country is allegedly reviewing how to cooperate with the strategic forum's working groups in non-military sectors.
Given that the Quad has been regarded as a means to contain China, Korea has been reluctant to accept the U.S.'s repeated calls to join, due to Beijing being Seoul's largest trading partner.
However, Washington has begun to promote the Quad as an informal strategic network for cooperation, suggesting that it is not targeting China, leaving room for Korea to join the forum.
The Quad, established in 2007, is comprised of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S.
Lee Soo-hyuck, the Korean ambassador to the U.S., told reporters last week that the government was carefully reviewing cooperating with the Quad's working groups on vaccine access, critical and emerging technologies and climate change. The groups were established following the first Quad summit in March.
Lee's remark was backed up by Japan's Asahi Shimbun, which recently reported Korea's possible involvement in the working groups.
Korea's change of stance follows a series of American government officials' remarks suggesting that the Quad is not seeking to counter China.
During the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers Meeting in Britain earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. was not asking countries to choose between the U.S. and China.
In addition, Edgard Kagan, senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council, also said earlier that the Quad was neither a security alliance nor an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Diplomatic observers said that Korea may decide on partial participation during the Moon-Biden summit at the White House, scheduled for Friday (U.S. time).
"It is a feasible scenario that Korea may participate in the Quad partially," said Shin Beom-chul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.
However, Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, said Korea's partial participation still would be short of meeting what the U.S. wants of Seoul.
"Other than cooperation on climate change, it remains to be seen if the U.S. government will be satisfied with Korea's partial participation in the other two sectors; critical technologies and vaccine access," Park said.
According to him, the U.S. hopes to build China-free supply chains for semiconductor chips, as well as infrastructure for their 5G network, hoping that its allies will follow suit.
"It is questionable whether the Korean government will accept the call," Park said.
Korea's aversion to joining the Quad is due to concerns of China's possible economic retaliation. Such retaliation was made when Seoul permitted the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system here. The Chinese government claims that the anti-missile system is aimed at spying on military activities in its airspace.
However, it would not be easy for China to take retaliatory actions immediately, the experts said.
"Given that the Quad is now defined as an informal strategic and non-military initiative, it does not pave the way for China to retaliate against Korea," said Chang Ho-jin, a former diplomat and chair professor of National Korea Maritime and Ocean University.
Park also said that, as China is well aware of anti-China sentiments in Korea, it will not easily retaliate against Korea.
"If it does, in the hegemonic competition between the U.S. and China, Korea will ultimately side with the U.S.," he added.
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