South Korea rethinks its foreign policy: Is it ditching the US for China?
11 December 2025, 9:30 am – 10:30 am
Location: Online
Think tank: Chatham House
This event hosted by UK think tank Chatham House discusses how South Korea may navigate its myriad foreign policy challenges.
Following his election as South Korea’s 14th president on 3 June 2025, progressive leader Lee Jae-myung has repeatedly stressed that his administration will pursue a pragmatic foreign policy.
In its first six months, the Lee administration was drawn into protracted trade negotiations with Washington concluding on the 29th October. President Lee has also held two bilateral summits with President Trump and met Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, on the sidelines of the APEC Summit.
His pledge comes as Seoul confronts a difficult geopolitical environment: an unpredictable relationship with the second Trump administration with respect to the reliability of the United States as an ironclad ally; intensifying strategic and economic rivalry between the United States and China; political and economic coercion from China, South Korea’s largest economic partner; and the mounting security threat from North Korea and Pyongyang’s expanding nuclear and missile development.
As Lee Administration looks to recalibrate South Korea’s foreign policy to increasingly precarious regional and global security environment, our panel of experts will discuss:
- What are the principal drivers of South Korea’s foreign policy?
- What comprises a ‘pragmatic’ foreign policy and how will the Lee Jae-myung government pursue such an approach at a time when South Korea faces questions regarding US alliance commitments, intensified Sino-US rivalry and an emboldened nuclear North Korea?
- In light of these foreign policy challenges, will the Lee government’s foreign policy demonstrate greater continuity than change from that compared of its conservative predecessor?
Speakers
Event chaired by Dr Chietigj Bajpaee.
Dr Chietigj Bajpaee – Senior Research Fellow for South Asia, Asia-Pacific Programme
Dr Edward Howell – Korea Foundation Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme
Kuyoun Chung – Associate Professor of Political Science, Kangwon National University
