Beijing: South Korean President Lee Jae-myung arrived in Beijing today to begin a four-day state visit, just hours after North Korea launched its first missile of the year. Mr. Lee and his wife are leading a delegation of more than 200 business leaders on their first visit to China since winning the election and taking office in June 2025. They are scheduled to hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday. The two leaders first met on November 1, 2025, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit hosted by South Korea. That visit marked Xi's first visit to South Korea in 11 years, while this will be Mr. Lee's first visit to China by a South Korean president in six years.
According to Thai News Agency, the visit comes as South Korea attempts to strike a balance between maintaining relations with China, a key trading partner in trade, tourism, and peacebuilding on the Korean Peninsula, and preserving relations with the United States, a vital ally.
Regarding North Korea's firing of several ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, or the East Sea as it's known in South Korea, this morning, just hours before the South Korean leader's arrival in China, Im Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, South Korea, views it as a message from North Korea to China warning them not to strengthen ties with South Korea and opposing China's stance on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.