Korea JoongAng Daily:

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping had their first phone conversation on March 25. While they exchanged well-wishing remarks, the sharp difference in their position obviously exuded tension.

What did Xi want to tell Yoon? Xi emphasized three things in Korea-China relations: mutual respect, political trust, and non-governmental friendship. What does mutual respect mean? A hint can be found in the March 11 editorial on China’s Global Times. The newspaper evaluated that the three No’s of the Moon Jae-in administration were the results of implementing mutual respect. The three No’s are no additional Thaad deployments, no joining of a broader U.S. missile defense system, and no Korea-U.S.-Japan military alliance.

This directly clashes with Yoon’s campaign promise of “additional Thaad deployment.” Xi’s “reinforcement of political trust” is also related to the Thaad. Former Chinese Ambassador to Korea Qiu Guohong said in the Korea-China seminar in January that the biggest cause of the Thaad discord was a “lack of political trust between the two countries.” But why did the friendship in the private sector crack? This resulted from Beijing’s restrictions on Korean culture and products in retaliation for the Thaad deployment. While there was no direct mention of Thaad in the phone conversation, the issue will likely be an obstacle between the two countries. I am breaking a sweat as Yoon has made “additional Thaad deployment” his campaign promise…

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