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President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea shakes hands with Chinese Premier Li Qiang after the latter’s remarks at a joint press conference held after a trilateral summit with Japan at the Blue House in Seoul on May 27, 2024. (Yonhap)

South Korea and China held a diplomatic and security dialogue in Seoul on Tuesday, the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The senior South Korean representative to the dialogue was First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Hong-kyun, who was attending with Lee Seung-buhm, the Ministry of National Defense’s director general for international policy. The senior Chinese representative was Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong, who was attending with Zhang Baoqun, the deputy director of the Office for International Military Cooperation in China’s Central Military Commission.

Ahead of the meeting, the South Korean ministries said the dialogue would act as a venue for the two sides to share their views on areas of mutual interest, including bilateral relations, Korean Peninsula issues, and the regional and international political situation.

In addition to these matters between the two sides, discussions were also expected to take place on Putin’s visit to North Korea and the recent increased closeness between Moscow and Pyongyang, which is poised to have a major impact on the political situation on the Korean Peninsula, in the region, and throughout the world.

Tuesday’s “two-plus-two” dialogue was the first held by the two sides in nine years and the first ever with participants at the vice minister level.

The South Korea-China diplomatic and national security dialogue framework was first created with a bilateral summit held in June 2013. Two meetings were held with participants at the bureau director level — one each in 2013 and 2015 — but the framework was subsequently suspended for a long period as South Korea-China relations soured over US Forces Korea’s deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, antimissile system.

In a meeting last month, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese Premier Li Qiang reached an agreement to increase the operation of bilateral communication channels in the areas of foreign affairs and national security. This led to the current dialogue, with an upgrade to the vice-ministerial level.

With China’s agreement to such a dialogue with South Korea at an unusual moment coinciding with Putin’s visit to North Korea, attention is focusing on Beijing’s attitude toward the increased closeness between Pyongyang and Moscow.

When asked about Putin’s visit during a regular briefing on June 13, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told the reporter, “Your question concerns bilateral interaction between Russia and the DPRK. It’s not for me to comment on that.”

“I’ll just say more broadly that China welcomes Russia to cement and grow ties with countries they have traditional friendship with,” he continued.

Analysts suggested that China perceives it as unfavorable from its own standpoint to have Russia increasing its influence on the Korean Peninsula through greater closeness with North Korea, with mounting tensions in Northeast Asia.

By Park Min-hee, senior staff writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]