Pelosi, US House Speaker, Makes Quiet Visit to Korea

Phone Call with President Yoon... Meeting with National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo and Visit to JSA

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Ki-min Lee and Hyun-jung Kim] Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and third in the U.S. presidential line of succession, quietly arrived in South Korea on the night of the 3rd after completing her visit to Taiwan. There was no welcoming ceremony for the foreign dignitary, and her meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol was replaced by a phone call, but the tension between the U.S. and China over the Taiwan Strait was carried over unchanged.

According to the Blue House and political circles on the 4th, Speaker Pelosi met with National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo on the same day for talks and a joint press announcement, then visited the Joint Security Area (JSA), but she is not scheduled to meet President Yoon in person and will have a phone conversation instead.

The Blue House stated, "The counterpart of the Speaker of the House is the National Assembly Speaker." However, considering that Pelosi met with former Presidents Lee Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye, and Moon Jae-in during their visits to South Korea, and that before arriving in Korea she visited Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan, and will next visit Japan where she will meet with the Prime Minister and President, who are the highest-ranking officials, political circles regard this as unusual.

There is an analysis that this reflects concerns that if South Korea joins the situation amid the escalating crisis in the Taiwan Strait caused by Pelosi's visit, the U.S.-China conflict could expand to the Korean Peninsula.

Since Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on the night of the 2nd, China has begun military exercises and has announced large-scale live-fire drills scheduled from the 4th to the 7th. On the 3rd, 27 military aircraft, including J-11 fighter jets, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), increasing pressure.

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense immediately protested, calling it a "sovereignty violation," and foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) issued a joint statement condemning it as aggressive military activity by China that cannot be justified. Experts have expressed concerns that this may lead to a fourth Taiwan Strait crisis following the third crisis in 1995-1996.

Reflecting this atmosphere, Pelosi was only greeted by officials from the U.S. Embassy in South Korea upon her arrival at Osan Air Base the previous night. She entered the hotel where she was to stay through the back entrance, not the main gate where media were waiting. At that time, President Yoon was watching a play in Daehangno, Seoul.

However, a senior official from the National Security Office told Asia Economy on the same day, "We asked for understanding last week as the schedule overlapped with a holiday, so a meeting was not possible, and Speaker Pelosi's side also understood," cautioning against overinterpretation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.