President Biden met in the White House with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on May 21, the second foreign leader he has met, following Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. There was much discussion before the meeting about efforts to pressure Moon to align with the “Quad” — the agreements among the U.S., Japan, Australia and India, meant to forge an anti-China alliance among “democracies.” Moon will not join anything anti-China, so the joint communiqué instead says that the U.S.-South Korea alliance “is grounded in our shared values and anchors our respective approaches to the Indo-Pacific region. We agree we will work to align the R.O.K.’s New Southern Policy and the United States’ vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific and that our countries will cooperate to create a safe, prosperous, and dynamic region. The United States and the Republic of Korea oppose all activities that undermine, destabilize, or threaten the rules-based international order and commit to maintaining an inclusive, free, and open Indo-Pacific. We pledge to maintain peace and stability, lawful unimpeded commerce, and respect for international law, including freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and beyond.” These are the phrases used by the Quad to justify anti-China policies. But Moon’s “New Southern Policy” is not anti-China, but an effort to improve Seoul’s relations with Southeast Asia and India.
Otherwise, on North Korea, the communiqué said both sides would adhere to the Trump- Panmunjom Declaration and Singapore Joint Statement, although they became moot when Bolton sabotaged the subsequent meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.
Biden praised Moon for giving in to the financial warfare from BlackRock which demanded Seoul end all financing of coal-fired power plants overseas, which forced the cancellation of planned plants, desperately needed, in the Philippines and South Africa.
One potentially positive agreement was to “establish a comprehensive KORUS Global Vaccine Partnership to strengthen joint response capabilities for infectious disease through international vaccine cooperation, including focus areas on global expansion of production and related materials, as well as scientific and technological cooperation. Drawing on each of our strengths, Korea and the United States will work collaboratively to expand manufacturing of vaccines.” They established the “KORUS Global Vaccine Partnership Experts Group” to implement the partnership, comprised of scientists, experts and officials from both governments.
The communiqué also said that the two nations “will cooperate towards the R.O.K. signing the Artemis Accords. Moreover, we commit to develop cooperation in overseas nuclear markets, including joint participation in nuclear power plant projects, while ensuring the highest standards of international nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation are maintained.”
