Debut on Int’l Stage
South Korean President Moon Jae-in visits Germany on July 6 to attend this year’s G20 summit, which takes place in Hamburg, Germany on July 7 and 8.
On July 6, he meets with U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe there. One-on-one meetings with the Japanese Prime Minister and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to take place while he is in Germany, too.
The South Korean and U.S. Presidents and the Japanese Prime Minister are likely to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue during their dinner meeting. In the meantime, the South Korean government’s multilateral diplomatic capabilities are expected to be tested by the meeting with the Chinese President in that the U.S. is currently putting pressure on China regarding the nuclear issue and China is driving South Korea into a corner concerning THAAD deployment.
Diplomatic experts point out that the Chinese President is expected to be in favor of the South Korean President’s North Korea Policy that puts dialogue first because it is what has been pursued by the chair of the six-party talks. They are also predicting that the South Korean President is likely to face some pressure with regard to the THAAD deployment issue in that he expressed his will not to cancel the deployment in his recent summit meeting with the U.S. President.
The joint statement that followed the summit meeting recognizes South Korea’s leading role in the pursuit of peace in the Korean Peninsula. Still, it has yet to be seen whether Japan and China will acknowledge it the same way.