South Korean President Lee Jae Myung began his first visit to China on Sunday, an effort to stabilize the countries’ relationship amid a volatile regional backdrop.
Lee is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday, a summit that “will be shaped less by easy deliverables” than by East Asia’s security flashpoints, The Korea Herald wrote.
North Korea’s ballistic missile launch on Sunday underscored that assessment. Experts said aligning too closely with the US and Japan, especially on the issue of Taiwan, would be risky for Lee, and he should instead focus on areas of economic and cultural cooperation, like tourism and cosmetics.
Still, Beijing’s unofficial ban on Korean pop culture will likely stay in place.