Tillerson to face thorny issues over two Koreas, China

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled to visit the Asia-Pacific region amid growing tension over North Korea‘s nuclear program and Seoul’s deployment of the US’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system. Tillerson plans to visit South Korea, Japan and China later this month to reportedly urge the countries to work together in preventing North Korea from enhancing its nuclear program.

Tillerson’s Asia tour would follow a similar trip by US Defense Secretary James Mattis in early February, which had stops in Seoul and Tokyo, though not Beijing. This time, however, the US will likely reach out to Beijing to deliver the Trump administration’s stance and draw consensus on the issue.

Given that the US needs to gain strategic cooperation from China in dealing with the North’s nuclear issue, Tillerson is expected to justify the THAAD deployment if he meets with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Tillerson’s visit to China could affect the ongoing conflict between Seoul and Beijing, which worsened after the Ministry of Defense signed a land-swap deal with Lotte Group last month for the deployment of the US anti-missile system.

Regional tension has been escalating as Seoul and Washington vowed to strengthen military cooperation Wednesday. The security chiefs of Korea and the US both agreed to accelerate the THAAD deployment. National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin and US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster reaffirmed the need to station the US missile defense system. “Secretary Mattis welcomed the official land transfer,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis also said in a statement.

Beijing has resorted to retaliatory measures in response. The Chinese tourism administration issued a sweeping travel ban Friday and Chinese authorities’ suspension order on the Lotte Mart in Dandong, northeastern China, on Saturday intensified the already-high tension even further.

Seoul is now pondering possible countermeasures. “(China’s retaliatory measures) could clash with World Trade Organization rules and relevant clauses of the Korea-China free-trade agreement,” said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Sunday, suggesting that Seoul may take the case to international court. Yun is expected to bring up the issue during his meeting with Tillerson.

Topics for the Seoul meeting between Tillerson and Yun include North Korea’s nuclear threat as well as the recent assassination of the half brother of Kim Jong-un in Malaysia. While in Japan, Tillerson is set to meet Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of a visit from US President Donald Trump.

By Shim Woo-hyun ()