South Korean President to meet with King Charles III

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected to meet today with the UK’s King Charles III.

President Yoon and his wife are expected to join King Charles and Queen Camilla for a state banquet. It will be the South Korean president’s first visit to Buckingham Palace since King Charles’ coronation. The visit will commemorate 140 years of British-Korean relations. Yoon is also expected to attend a bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and address both houses of Parliament.

Yoon’s visit to Buckingham Palace signals a strengthening of British-Korean political relations but is also expected to include discussions with London’s financial and commercial communities to broaden British-Korean economic cooperation. Prime Minister Sunak’s meeting with President Yoon will almost certainly include discussions on regional security in East Asia, amid the ever-present nuclear threat from North Korea.

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To what end the United Kingdom can aid South Korea in this security challenge remains to be seen. The UK has, since Brexit, made a stronger effort to build new security partnerships with the Asia-Pacific region, namely, the AUKUS alliance. The closeness of British security policies in the Asia-Pacific to that of the United States means that Prime Minister Sunak may look to persuade President Yoon to strengthen Japanese-Korean relations to combat growing Chinese assertiveness as well as the immediate North Korean threat.