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Kim Sung-han, director of national security in the presidential office, delivers a briefing on Aug. 11 regarding diplomatic affairs including THAAD. (pool photo)

Just three months since taking office, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s foreign policy has already hit a dead end.

The US continues to push Korea to take part in its encirclement of China, while China has been cranking up the pressure over the THAAD anti-missile defense system while making five demands that appear to challenge Korea’s foreign policy principles. Japan hasn’t played along with the Yoon administration’s brash promises about improving bilateral relations, and the North Korean threat is growing.

In short, Yoon faces challenges from all sides.

Yoon has said the pillars of his foreign policy are rebuilding Korea’s alliance with the US and promoting global cooperation based on liberal democratic values. Claiming that the Korea-US alliance had been undermined by the Moon administration’s preoccupation with inter-Korean relations and subservience to China, Yoon promised to restore the alliance to its proper position.

While Yoon seemed to assume that more cooperation with the US and Japan would solve everything, the cold truth is that international relations aren’t as simple as that.

In regard to the issue of compensation for victims of forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule over Korea — the single biggest issue affecting Korea-Japan relations — Japan seems to be demanding total capitulation from the Yoon administration.

North Korea has threatened the preemptive use of nuclear weapons while ignoring the Yoon administration’s “bold plan” for North Korea policy. On Thursday, Pyongyang even mentioned tough retaliatory measures against South Korea, which it blames for its COVID-19 outbreak.

For now, the trickiest challenge is presented by China. While the Yoon administration has treated China so cavalierly that the prime minister even described the Chinese economy as being “on the verge of flipping over,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi enumerated five things that China and Korea “need” to do, which included adhering to “independence and freedom from external interference.” Wang made it quite clear that China won’t tolerate the Yoon administration’s overemphasis on bolstering the Korea-US alliance.

China’s discourteous attitude reminds one of how Japan, following its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, sought to expand its influence over the Korean Peninsula by requiring China to acknowledge that Korea (then known as Joseon) was “a completely independent and autonomous state.”

Following a meeting between Korea’s and China’s foreign ministers, China demanded that the operations of THAAD batteries already deployed in Korea be restricted in addition to the “three noes.”

Korea’s presidential office emphasized on Thursday that THAAD is not up for discussion and said the US military’s THAAD base in Seongju County would return to normal operations by the end of the month. However, there are disturbing questions about how carefully the Yoon administration has prepared for the possibility of Chinese retribution.

At a perilous time when the hegemonic conflict between the US and China is heating up, treating foreign policy as little more than a chance to erase the previous administration will only accelerate the crisis. The Yoon administration needs to solicit opinions from experts across party lines and devise policies that are backed by people on both sides of the aisle.

The Korean public wants to know whether the Yoon administration’s foreign policy is being coordinated by people with a definite strategy for devising prudent action plans and crisis response measures.

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