South Korean president misses Pelosi meeting for staycation

Nancy Pelosi’s much-watched Asia tour has included a run of high-profile conferences: conversations with the prime ministers of Singapore and Malaysia; a gathering with the president of Taiwan; and a possible dialogue with the prime minister of Japan by the tip of the week.

Lacking from that listing is the president of South Korea, who missed an in-person get along with the Home Speaker as he takes a staycation in Seoul.

Ms Pelosi arrived in South Korea on Wednesday night. On the time Yoon Suk-yeol was in north Seoul attending a theater efficiency, grabbing selfies and dinner with the forged of a comedy a couple of subway station employee.

Mr Yoon’s workplace has defined he was unavailable to satisfy in individual with the US chief.

“I’ve acquired questions on whether or not the president averted assembly with the Home speaker as a result of he was cautious of China,” his spokesperson instructed The Washington Submit. “All this stuff are determined based mostly on an intensive consideration of our nation’s nationwide curiosity.”

As an alternative, the pair of allies had a 40-minute telephone assembly on Thursday.

The pair mentioned the US alliance with South Korea and “deterrence” in opposition to North Korea, in response to a readout of the decision.

The Home Speaker, for her half, appeared happy with the South Korean leg of the tour, which included conversations with the Speaker of the South Korean Nationwide Meeting, and a go to to the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea.

“A relationship that started from urgency and safety a few years in the past has turn into the warmest of friendships,” Ms Pelosi mentioned at a press convention with South Korean leaders.

“We wish to advance safety, financial system and governance in an inter-parliamentary means,” she added.

Internally, the perceived snub was met with a mixture of reactions.

South Korean opposition member Kim Eui-kyeom praised Mr Yoon for skipping out, saying he had averted “leaping into the hearth of the US-China battle” that has dogged Ms Pelosi’s journey, particularly its controversial leg in Taiwan.

“Yoon’s avoidance of Pelosi assembly could ship mistaken alerts to the U.S. and China,” the right-leaning Chosun Ilbo newspaper argued in an editorial, warning of a “submissive angle” in the direction of Xi Jinping.

Mr Yoon, who took workplace in Might, argued on the marketing campaign path it was attainable to coexist with the US and China; the previous is a serious defence companion in South Korea and the latter who’s the South Korea’s largest buying and selling companion.

“It’s nonetheless early on in his presidency and Yoon has to stroll a superb line,” Choi Jin, head of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Management suppose tank, instructed The Wall Avenue Journal.

Mr Yoon hasn’t all the time tiptoed round China’s needs.

In June, he angered China by attending a Nato summit in Madrid, whereas this month the South Korean army will resume full-scale army drills with the US.