SEOUL – Inter-Korean relations may have hit rock bottom, but engagement through diplomacy and the pursuit of peaceful coexistence must continue, said South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. While North Korea remains open to engagement with both China and Russia, the divide between the two Koreas is becoming increasingly pronounced, Lee said, adding that it is therefore a priority to maintain efforts to engage the North while also normalising relations with neighbouring countries. “We must at least keep talking,” said Lee during a press conference
on June 8 to mark his first year in office. South Korea’s alliance with the United States must be “respected and developed in a future-oriented manner”, but it is not everything, he said, adding that relations with China, Russia and Japan are also important. “There is no need to pursue paths that harm one another. At a minimum, we should seek paths that are mutually beneficial,” said the president. And it is Lee’s pragmatism in foreign policy that has won him praise from analysts The
Straits Times spoke to, who cite it as one of the defining features of his first year in office. Bong Young-shik from the Institute for North Korean Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul said that Lee’s office was wise in accepting the “inevitable new reality that North Korea is not going to respond to whatever overtures Seoul makes”. “Instead of trying to artificially change the dynamics of inter-Korean relations, he accepted this as the new reality. This gives his government more credibility, especially with the
US and Japan, unlike his other liberal presidential predecessors, who are seen as more “blindly” pro-North Korea,” said Bong. South Korea’s liberal governments have traditionally prioritised engagement with North Korea and stable ties with China, while taking a firmer stance towards Japan, particularly on historical issues. Conservative administrations, by contrast, have generally placed greater emphasis on the country’s alliance with the United States and closer cooperation with Tokyo. North Korea has built walls to prevent any possibility of communication with the South, from constructing barriers
on its side of the inter-Korean borders to revising its constitution to formally define South Korea as its “principal enemy” and stripping away references to national reconciliation. But Lee said his administration remains committed to a policy of “dialogue, communication, cooperation, coexistence and shared prosperity” with North Korea. His remarks came as Chinese President Xi Jinping was welcomed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, where Xi was making a rare state visit on June 8-9, his first in nearly seven years. Xi’s
visit comes after Beijing hosted US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin separately in May, and as an anticipated side meeting between Trump and Kim failed to materialise. A day before Xi’s visit, Kim’s powerful sister Yo Jong had reiterated Pyongyang’s position that its status as a nuclear weapons state is “an absolutely irreversible red line and an undeniable reality”. Lee said that while the denuclearisation of North Korea remains the ultimate goal, a more realistic near-term objective is to bring Pyongyang back to
the negotiating table and secure a halt to its nuclear and missile development, given the reality of its expanding arsenal. “We should not be so attached to ideals that we ignore reality, nor so constrained by reality that we abandon our ideals,” said the president, adding that he personally believed that “simply freezing the situation at its current state” would already be beneficial for the Korean Peninsula and the international community. Lee was elected president in a snap election on June 3, 2025, after his
conservative predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached over his short-lived declaration of martial law in December 2024. There were concerns that the “shuttle diplomacy” between South Korea and Japan, only recently revived in 2023 after years of strained relations over issues including a 2019 trade dispute, could lose momentum under Lee’s presidency. Yet Lee has largely stayed true to his campaign pledge to put national interests ahead of rigid ideology in foreign policy. He has also developed a close working relationship with Japanese Prime Minister
Sanae Takaichi, whom he recently hosted in his hometown of Andong on May 19 as part of the two countries’ ongoing shuttle diplomacy. But despite the warmer ties, Lee admitted during the press conference that it would still be difficult for South Koreans to accept Japan’s recent proposal for a bilateral military logistics support pact known as the Acquisition and Cross-servicing Agreement (ACSA), given the historical grievances over Japan’s 30-year occupancy of South Korea from 1910 to 1945. The idea was brought up by former
Japan premier Shigeru Ishiba during a forum in Seoul in April, and raised again at the defence minister level during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in May. “There is a realistic need (for the ACSA) in my view, but it is difficult to accept it at the moment due to the emotions of our people, and we will be scolded for talking about this,” said Lee. Lee’s measured foreign policy has earned broad approval across the political spectrum, including among moderates and conservatives, said Hahm
Sung-deuk, a professor of political science and law at Kyonggi University. Hahm added that another feather in Lee’s cap was his deft handling of relations with both the US and China, avoiding major diplomatic friction while still securing tangible gains from his dealings with US president Donald Trump. During his second in-person summit on the sidelines of the 2025 Apec meetings in Gyeongju, Lee notched a major diplomatic win by obtaining Trump’s support for South Korea’s bid to build nuclear-powered submarines and pursue expanded uranium
enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing capabilities. These concessions, both long-standing strategic and energy-policy goals that previous administrations had struggled to achieve, were part of a broader deal that saw Washington reduce tariffs on South Korean exports from 25 per cent to 15 per cent, along with Seoul’s investment pledge to the tune of US$350 billion (S$451 billion). Although bilateral relations hit several speed bumps thereafter, including Trump’s repeated criticism of Seoul’s reluctance to support operations in the Strait of Hormuz, analysts credited Lee’s calm and restrained
handling of the situation. Bong said Lee did well in “holding his ground” despite the pressures, but warns that Washington-Seoul ties remain tricky with “multiple interlocking issues” that could still flare up later on in Lee’s term. Domestically, Lee has constantly enjoyed a strong approval rating since his election, hitting a high of 69 per cent in March. His ruling party Democratic Party of Korea (DP) swept most of the major mayoral and provincial seats in local elections held on June 3, but failed to
clinch the jewel in the crown, Seoul, South Korea’s largest city and most politically prized mayoralty. Observers say that despite Lee’s strong approval ratings, many Seoul voters remain frustrated by persistently high housing prices, and are uneasy about his ruling party’s push for legislation that may shield him from past indictments that predated his presidency. Incumbent Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon from the opposition People Power Party (PPP) won his fifth term by a narrow one per cent ahead of his rival, in a nailbiting finish
after initially lagging far behind. Controversy over a shortage of ballot papers during the polling day on June 3 has fuelled protests in the city since June 5, culminating in a weekend rally at the Olympic Park in south-eastern Seoul that drew thousands demanding a re-vote. According to local media reports, the paper shortage affected several cities including Daegu, Busan and Incheon, with Seoul being the worst hit with 35 polling stations having insufficient ballot papers. The subsequent protests have forced the commission chief to
step down, while Lee’s approval rating on June 8 fell sharply by four percentage points to 55.2 per cent from a week earlier. In response to ST’s query on what steps he intended to take after the controversy, Lee expressed his personal frustration over what he described as an absurd situation. It was a situation “that’s hard for even people in lesser developed democracies to imagine”, he added. He has since called for a thorough investigation, with the ruling DP announcing plans to launch a
national inquiry.
Lee Jae Myung, South Korea, North Korea, inter-Korean relations, nuclear talks, Xi Jinping visit Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un, Yo Jong, ACSA, Japan shuttle diplomacy, US tariffs, Strait of Hormuz, approval rating, ballot-paper shortage, Olympic Park protests