President Lee: "Korea Can No Longer Take the ‘Balanced U.S.-Security, China-Economy’ Stance as in the Past"

President Lee Jae-myung stated on the 25th (local time) that Korea can no longer maintain the ‘balanced U.S.-security, China-economy’ policy (“Anmi-gyeongjung”) as it did in the past, referring to simultaneous economic cooperation with China and security cooperation with the United States.

President Lee made this remark during a lecture at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. think tank, upon their invitation.

He said, “It is true that, until the U.S. started a strong check and, to speak bluntly, a containment policy against China, Korea had maintained the stance of ‘security with the U.S., economy with China.’” He added, “However, in recent years, the reorganization of supply chains between the free world and China-led blocs has gotten fully underway, and U.S. policies have clearly shifted to checking China.”

He went on to say, “Now, Korea can no longer act or judge contrary to the basic U.S. policy,” diagnosing, “(In the case of China), the unavoidable relationship arising from geographic proximity should be carefully managed and maintained only at that level.”

He also noted, “But even the U.S., while fundamentally competing and sometimes confronting China, is also cooperating with China in certain fields.”