Wang Yi in Seoul as Trump Scales Back Drills to Court Kim
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- Wang Yi arrived in Seoul on Wednesday for talks and dinner with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, covering bilateral ties, Korean Peninsula issues, and regional affairs per Seoul's Foreign Ministry.
- Wang Yi is scheduled to meet President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday and hold talks with National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac.
- Trump ordered the scaling back of joint US-South Korean military exercises, citing his relationship with Kim Jong Un and signaling willingness to meet the North Korean leader again.
- China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated its long-standing position that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula is in the common interests of all parties.
- South Korea's Foreign Ministry is pursuing a summit between Lee and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen later this year.
- Lee Jae Myung proposed multilateral talks involving parties to the 1950-53 Korean War on establishing lasting peace on the peninsula.
Why it matters: Wang Yi is the highest-ranking foreign diplomat engaging Seoul on Korean Peninsula issues at a moment when Trump is unilaterally cutting joint military exercises to court Kim Jong Un — giving Beijing a diplomatic opening to reassert itself as the indispensable regional broker while Seoul simultaneously pursues a Xi-Lee summit and its own multilateral peace framework.
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