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Kim Sung-han, the director of the National Security Office, delivers a briefing on June 22, 2022, regarding South Korea’s attendance at the NATO summit. (presidential office pool photo)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is scheduled to speak for three minutes on the North Korean nuclear issue at a NATO summit taking place in Madrid, Spain, on June 29–30.

The presidential office also said there was the “possibility of a trilateral South Korea-US-Japan summit on the topic of security cooperation during this period.”

Delivering a briefing Wednesday at the Yongsan presidential office, Yoon’s director of national security, Kim Sung-han, said, “President Yoon’s attendance of the NATO summit is significant in terms of strengthening our alliance of values based on liberal democracy, establishing a comprehensive base for security, and exploring responses to newly emerging security situations.”

He also said it would be an opportunity to “clarify our administration’s position on the North Korean nuclear issue and secure broad-ranging support from the attending nations.”

During the summit, Yoon plans to have bilateral meetings with around 10 countries on topics including nuclear power, semiconductors, new and renewable energy sources, and the defense industry.

“We are organizing 10 bilateral meetings, and there is also the possibility of a South Korea-US-Japan summit,” an official with the presidential office said, while cautioning that it was difficult to predict whether the trilateral meeting would indeed take place.

Speaking about the potential trilateral summit, the same official said it would “inevitably focus on security cooperation.”

“The sole targets of trilateral security cooperation are North Korea and its nuclear program. That’s where we can expect the focus of security cooperation between South Korea, the US, and Japan to be,” they added.

This is to be the first time a South Korean leader attends a summit for NATO, a security alliance involving the US and major European countries. The presidential office also announced plans to establish a mission to NATO in Brussels — where the NATO headquarters is based — around the same time as the summit. The position of ambassador to NATO is to be concurrently held by Yoon Soon-gu, South Korea’s ambassador to Belgium and the European Union.

With China having already expressed wariness about the prospects of South Korea and Japan ratcheting up their collaboration with NATO, it may also protest Seoul’s creation of a new NATO mission.

When South Korea became the first Asian country to formally join the NATO cyber defense group in early May, China’s state-run Global Times published a commentary claiming that “US-led NATO is attempting to turn the Northeast Asian country [of South Korea] into a chess piece to contain China and Russia in the realm of cyber defense.”

“It has extended its cyber defense to the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and even the Indo-Pacific region, paving the way for the interference of Western forces in regional geopolitical affairs,” it argued.

Responding to claims that Yoon’s attendance at the NATO summit was part of a “pivot toward anti-China and anti-Russia policies,” an administration official said, “It’s a stretch to call it ‘anti-China’ for us to respond when peace and freedom are threatened.”

Another official said Yoon’s attendance was meant to “expand our network in terms of comprehensive security.”

First lady Kim Keon-hee also appears likely to accompany Yoon when he attends the NATO summit. A presidential office official said, “We’re strongly considering her participation in the official spouses’ program.”

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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