US Vice-President Kamala Harris set to discuss countering China, North Korea in Seoul, analysts say

The vice-president of the United States, who attended Shinzo Abe’s funeral in Japan on Tuesday, is due in South Korea on Thursday

Experts say she’ll want to talk about US commitments to the South in the face of the North’s nuclear threats, and how to handle Beijing

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US Vice President Kamala Harris in Tokyo, Japan, where she attended the state funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. She is due in South Korea on Thursday. Photo: via AP

Published: 8:30am, 28 Sep 2022Updated: 10:56am, 28 Sep 2022

US Vice-President Kamala Harris will call for South Korea’s cooperation in containing an assertive China even as Seoul seeks to counter the growing threats from North Korea, analysts said Tuesday.

Harris is set to arrive in Seoul on Thursday as part of an Asia trip that included her attendance at the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday in Tokyo.

A senior US official said last week that Harris would meet South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol, “underscore the strength” of the US-South Korean alliance and discuss the threat posed by the North and “the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.

A visitor walks past a fence adorned with ribbons near the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, earlier this month. Photo: AFP

Their agenda also includes “our growing economic and technology partnership, and a range of regional and global issues”, the official said.

Harris will also visit the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, a “symbolic” move that attests to the US defence commitment to South Korea amid mounting nuclear threats from Pyongyang, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said on Tuesday after meeting Harris at Abe’s funeral.

“Her messages will boil down as follows: Seoul’s cooperation in handling China, US commitment to South Korea in the face of growing threats from North Korea and warnings against the North conducting its seventh nuclear test,” said Park Won-gon, a political-science professor at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University.

Harris is likely to reiterate Washington’s stance on a free and open Indo-Pacific region, peace and stability in the South China Sea including Taiwan, law-based international order, stable supply chains and cooperation with South Korea in hi-tech fields including semiconductors, he said.