Possible South Korean Invitation to G7 May Depend on China Posture, Panelists Say

November 20, 2024 by Ian Cohen|Asia Pacific

South Korea should be invited to join the Group of 7 nations because of its willingness to work with the U.S. and other allies in imposing sanctions and export controls against Russia, the country’s former foreign affairs minister said this week.

Park Jin, South Korea’s chief foreign affairs official from 2022 to 2024, said becoming a member of the G7 requires “active diplomacy, and Korea is ready to do that.”

Park and other panelists speaking during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event discussed whether the G7 should consider allowing other countries to join the group, including South Korea, and whether the incoming Trump administration would support that expansion. Victor Cha, the Korea chair for CSIS, said other G7 countries may be skeptical about inviting South Korea, adding that he can envision a scenario in which South Korea “might hesitate” to, for example, sign on to a collective G7 response to Chinese economic coercion.

Park suggested South Korea may be more willing to go along with those measures if it's formally invited to the G7, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., the U.S. and often the European Commission.

“Korea is imposing financial sanctions and export control vis-a-vis Russia for the first time,” he said. “It's not easy, but the [President] Yoon Suk Yeol new government has made the decision to make sure that we condemn the armed invasion of Russia as a violation of international law and UN charter.”

He also said South Korea would be willing to discuss an agreement among G7 nations to use interest from frozen Russian assets to finance about $50 billion in loans to Ukraine (see 2406140056). “If we joined the G7, obviously we would very actively discuss with the members of the G7 to create a consensus on what should be the best way to deal with this challenge,” Park said.

Clete Willems, a former senior international economics official during the Trump administration and sherpa to the G7 and G20, said Trump would need to feel certain that South Korea would be willing to align itself with U.S. policies on China.

“I do agree with this question of Korea needing to show the requisite level of ambition, and especially on the China question,” Willems said. “I do think being willing to go along with that agenda will be almost a threshold criteria for the United States.”