Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Seoul on Wednesday for a two-day visit that marks the highest-level diplomatic exchange between Beijing and Seoul in five years, with North Korea’s nuclear programme and Taiwan expected to dominate the agenda.
Wang is scheduled to hold talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on bilateral issues, the North Korea-China relationship and broader developments on the Korean Peninsula. A meeting with President Lee Jae Myung at the presidential office and talks with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young are also reportedly under consideration.
First Visit Since 2021
The trip represents Wang’s first visit to South Korea for high-level diplomatic talks since September 2021. It comes after Seoul had sought to arrange foreign ministers’ meetings during the first quarter of the year, but the consultations did not materialise at that time. Wang instead visited North Korea in April, holding talks with officials in Pyongyang, and Chinese President Xi Jinping followed with a state visit to North Korea in June.
The visits prompted concern in Seoul that Beijing was placing greater emphasis on restoring its influence over North Korea as part of its strategic competition with the United States. Some observers questioned whether China was becoming less willing to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons programme. South Korea reportedly conveyed to Beijing that growing perceptions China was tolerating North Korea’s nuclear development were undesirable.
The visit is interpreted as being conscious of the United States, North Korea and Russia. The US and China are set to hold a summit in Beijing in September, and Beijing appears to want to emphasise that it remains influential in Northeast Asia.
The talks are anticipated to broadly address follow-up measures from the January 2026 Korea-China summit at which Lee Jae Myung visited Beijing. Seoul is expected to press China to play a constructive role in stabilising the Korean Peninsula, with officials calling for continued efforts toward denuclearisation, peace and stability.
Taiwan on the Agenda
Taiwan is also expected to feature prominently in the discussions. South Korean and Chinese officials addressed the issue during director-general-level consultations in June. Seoul has maintained that it respects the “one China” position outlined when the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992, but has also emphasised the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
The visit takes place against a backdrop of deepening ties between North Korea, China and Russia. The three countries recently exchanged high-level delegations to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the North Korea-China Friendship Treaty. North Korean Prime Minister Park Tae-sung met with President Xi earlier this month, while Wang Huning, president of the National People’s Political Consultative Conference, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Sources: Kyodo News; UPI; MK Maeil Business Newspaper; Asahi Shimbun
discussion