Written : 2025-06-14 12:00:00 KST
With the country's new leader elected, South Korea has resumed top-level diplomacy. President Lee Jae-myung held a series of phone talks with foreign leaders this week and is slated to attend the G7 summit. For more on this, we invited correspondent Kim Bo-kyoung to the studio. Bo-kyoung, welcome. Hello, Eun-ji. Thank you for having me. Bo-kyoung, why don't we start with the phone calls President Lee has recently made?
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Sure, President Lee held a series of phone talks with foreign leaders: U.S. President Donald Trump on the 6th, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba this Monday, and China's President Xi Jinping the next day. Lee is said to have had a friendly talk with Trump, where they affirmed the importance of the ROK-U.S. alliance, and agreed to strive toward reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement in terms of tariff negotiations as soon as possible.
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Four days later, the U.S. State Department confirmed the phone call between the two leaders, with the spokesperson saying that Washington is confident that the two countries' alliance will continue to "thrive" under the new South Korean president's leadership. In terms of a call with Ishiba, they agreed to build a "stronger, more mature" bilateral relationship, and further affirmed their commitment to trilateral cooperation with the U.S. Regarding President Lee having phone talks with the U.S., and Japan before China, an expert said Lee is just keeping a promise made before he became president.
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"President Lee, during his the presidential campaign, said that ROK-U.S. alliance is the most top priority and then he also put lots of emphasis on the relationship with Japan. Of course, he mentioned that South Korea-U.S.-Japan, the trilateral cooperation is important. So he's simply implementing what he has pledged." Now with Chinese President Xi, Lee asked China to play a constructive role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and invited him to attend the APEC Summit that will take place here in Korea in November.
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There were also talks with the Czech Prime Minister, where both leaders welcomed the signing of the final contract for the construction of the two new nuclear power plants in Dukovany, calling it a cornerstone for further expanding economic cooperation. And more recently, Lee agreed to bolster strategic cooperation in the field of high-speed railways and nuclear power plants in talks with Vietnam's president, and pledged to strengthen cooperation in national defense, clean energy, and critical minerals with the Australian Prime Minister.
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critical (앞으로의 상황에 영향을 미친다는 점에서) 대단히 중요한[중대한]; crucial
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I see. Following these phone talks, President Lee was preparing to go to Canada to attend the upcoming G7 Summit from June 15 to 17. This will be his debut on the global diplomatic stage, right? Yes, his trip to the G7 Summit comes less than two weeks after his inauguration. The summit is going to be in Alberta, and Lee is going there at Canada's invitation. Lee attending a G7 summit is going to be quite symbolic for South Korea, as it signals the resumption of Korea's top-level diplomacy that had been stalled over the past six months following the martial law crisis.
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"The attendance basically means that we are going to normalize things and actively engage on the diplomatic stage, though we have had a diplomatic vacuum for the past six months." Now, with Trump also attending the G7 summit, is there any possibility of bilateral talks taking place between Lee and Trump? Yes, there is always a possibility, and if they get a chance, it would be the first time in seven months that the leaders of Seoul and Washington have last met in person.
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Previously, former President Yoon Suk-yeol and former U.S. President Joe Biden met at the APEC summit held in Peru in November last year. But we need to note that the G7 Summit is a multilateral setting and that South Korea has been invited as an observer. In this kind of setting, it could be quite difficult to have bilateral talks. Also, according to an expert I spoke to, it could be better to talk about such challenging issues later on, after being fully prepared and when proper talks can be held.
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"It's not a good idea that we talk about these upcoming and very daunting issues and challenges for South Korea including tariffs and cost sharing We have to be prepared, we have to have our own strategy first, and then we will have a very detailed way to prepare to hold this meeting." I see. How about Japan? If bilateral talks do take place, how would they be? Yes, as Lee and Ishiba have already expressed the hope of meeting each other in person at an early date during their recent phone talks, there is the possibility that a summit will take place.
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daunting 벅찬, 주눅이 들게 하는
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In terms of Japan, there are still concerns over how President Lee will shape his approach toward Tokyo, as he had taken a confrontational stance, regarding historical and territorial disputes. Despite such worries, an expert says Seoul will maintain a favorable relationship with Tokyo, largely because the two countries have the same issues to deal with.
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confrontational 대립[대결]의.
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"Japan is not just a country that helps us keep countries like China and North Korea in check, but also a country --like South Korea --that is going through some overbearing behavior from the U.S., and therefore we need to work together in dealing with this." And that is where we could perhaps see President Lee's "pragmatic diplomacy, " separating issues of cooperation from past problems. Alright, Bo-kyoung. Thank you for the talk. Thank you.
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overbearing 고압적인, 남을 지배하려 드는 (=domineering)
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영어 원문 출처 및 동영상 링크;
arirang news/Foreign Policy
https://m.arirang.com/news/view?id=284364