Xi Jinping ‘Protecting Free Trade with Certainty of Stability’ Lee Jae-myung ‘Improving North Korea’s Reliance on Trump’
Chinese President Xi Jinping declared ‘Protecting Free Trade’ with ‘Certainty of Stability’ in Vietnam, Japan attempted to ‘Expand Operations in the Korean Peninsula’ and candidate Lee Jae-myung announced ‘Improving North Korea Relations with Dependence on Trump’.
The Trump administration, which has shifted the main stage of nuclear negotiations to Iran, resumed the second round of nuclear negotiations in Oman on the 18th, and China is developing a strategy of ‘protecting free trade’ in East Asia and Japan is entering the agreement stage with the Trump administration on a strategy of ‘integrating jurisdiction over the entire Korean Peninsula, Taiwan Strait, and South China Sea warfare.’
The Wall Street Journal reported on the 15th, citing people familiar with the talks, that the Trump administration plans to pressure US trading partners to restrict trade with China through ongoing tariff negotiations. The report, which cited a U.S. tariff blockade of China as a warning to neighboring countries, said U.S. officials were negotiating with more than 70 countries, including South Korea, to “ask China to block its goods from shipping through their borders and to block Chinese companies from setting up shop in their territories to avoid U.S. tariffs,” Reuters reported.
China’s Xi Jinping is making the case for free trade this week during a tour of Southeast Asia, presenting China as a source of “stability and certainty,” and China and Vietnam signed a series of memoranda on supply chain cooperation and joint railway projects on Tuesday, while Xi signed an agreement pledging to expand Vietnam’s access to Chinese agricultural exports, the AP reported.
In Hanoi, Xi Jinping said at a summit with Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam that the two countries had “brought precious stability and certainty to the world” in a “turbulent world,” and a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement highlighted “free trade” as a core of China’s foreign strategy, saying, “As beneficiaries of economic globalization, China and Vietnam should strengthen strategic resolve, jointly oppose unilateral bullying, safeguard the global free trade system, and maintain the stability of global industries and supply chains.”
Presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said, “From the US perspective, it seems that they have decided to join hands with Russia to contain China,” and that the Trump administration will have no choice but to improve relations with North Korea for the purpose of “containment of China” from a geopolitical perspective, and thus revealed “dependence on Trump” for improving relations with North Korea.
On the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation’s YouTube channel on the 15th, the candidate said, “If we stay away from North Korea and the US as a third party when relations improve, we could be in big trouble,” and “We can have a win-win situation with the US on this issue as well.”
On this day, when former Roh Moo-hyun Foundation Chairman Yoo Si-min said, “North Korea has become a useful entity as President Donald Trump has designated China as a geopolitical rival,” the candidate responded, “Yes,” and “There will be an opportunity to improve inter-Korean relations.”
On YouTube, the candidate directly criticized Russia, a “country with diplomatic ties,” saying, “It seems that the US has decided to join hands with Russia in order to check China,” and “The current international situation has made the US and Russia closer, and Russia and North Korea have a special relationship,” and “Because the Yoon administration has been too harsh, (North Korea and Russia) have become too close. It has become a very threatening factor for us.”
The candidate criticized “China’s economic sanctions,” saying, “China is also significantly responsible” for the Korea-China relationship, and “It was good about 20 years ago, but as our people felt China’s invisible economic sanctions, the conflict has grown.”
The candidate continued, “We must respect the Korea-US alliance and properly build a Korea-US-Japan cooperative relationship, while also managing our relations with Russia and China.”
The first Trump administration was a ‘North Korea strategy first’ regime, as it abruptly broke the Iran nuclear deal reached by the previous Obama administration, while at the same time ‘threatening North Korea and CIA’s strategy to hold a North Korea-US summit’ was tied to ‘destroying Iran’s nuclear program’, but this second administration has shifted to ‘negotiating after threatening to break the Iran nuclear deal made by the Democratic Party Biden’ and ‘North Korea second, Iran first’ as a conciliatory policy toward North Korea.
The monumental nuclear deal between Iran and major powers such as the US and Europe in 2015 imposed strict restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, and after Republican President Trump withdrew the US from the nuclear deal in 2018, the agreement was broken, and Iran has far exceeded its limits, and this year, the Trump administration threatened that “if they don’t negotiate, there will be a bombing” two weeks ago, saying that they wanted to negotiate new nuclear sanctions during the talks with Iran that began last weekend.
President Trump met with top national security advisers at the White House on the 15th to discuss Iran's nuclear program ahead of the second meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials on the 19th, Reuters reported on the 15th.
Special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff said on the 18th that the Iran envoy will meet again in Oman, where the first meeting was heated, and President Trump spoke to Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman about Oman's role as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, Reuters reported.
Special envoy Witkoff, a real estate developer and longtime friend of Trump, approached Russia through Saudi mediation, negotiated the Ukraine "30-day ceasefire" directly with President Putin, and is leading the most urgent security issues under the Trump administration, making the "Iran nuclear deal" a top issue.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters after the call that he was “very disappointed with President Trump’s tariff policy” and urged him to reconsider it. “I told President Trump that Japan has been the largest investor in the United States for five consecutive years, and that the tariff policy could hurt Japanese companies’ ability to invest,” he said.
Minister Ishiba said that during the 25-minute call, the two leaders agreed to continue constructive dialogue on the issue and appoint a minister in charge of the discussions.
President Trump mentioned the call with Prime Minister Ishiba on his Truth Social that day, writing, “Countries around the world are talking to us. A strict but fair standard is being set,” adding, “I told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamison Greer that the current tariff standard with Japan is ‘strict but fair.’ I have put them in charge of trade negotiations.”
Prime Minister Shinzo Azawa (ministerial level) was appointed as the representative on this day, and before he arrived in the United States on the 16th and began meeting with the Treasury Secretary and USTR representative nominated by President Trump, President Trump suddenly announced on the 16th via TrueSocial that he would “attend the negotiations directly.”
President Trump wrote, “Japan is coming today to negotiate tariffs, military support costs, and ‘TRADE FAIRNESS.’ I will attend that meeting with the Treasury Secretary and the Secretary of Commerce. I hope that something good will be reached for both Japan and the United States.” This is the counterpart of ‘free trade vs. fair trade’ in response to President Xi Jinping’s announcement of ‘free trade protection’ in Vietnam.
President Trump’s announcement of ‘fair trade’ on this day makes Lee Jae-myung’s statement that ‘the United States joined hands with Russia to check China’ seem to be an error. Russia has been subject to continued ‘economic sanctions’ led by the United States, and Japan is a partner of economic cooperation.
On the 30th of last month, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that he would upgrade the Japanese Defense Minister and US Forces Japan to a 'combat command' and strengthen the command and control system with the Japan Self-Defense Forces to transform into a unified command.
The Asahi Shimbun reported on the 15th that Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani conveyed to Minister Hegseth a strategic plan that views the Korean Peninsula, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea as a single 'war zone'.
At the US-Japan Defense Ministerial Meeting, Defense Minister Nakatani conveyed to Minister Hegseth a plan to integrate the East China Sea and the South China Sea into a single war zone with the 'One Theater' concept, strengthening defense cooperation among Indo-Pacific countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines.
The term 'theater' that came out that day refers to a change in command system that integrates the East China Sea and the South China Sea into a single war zone and establishes the Unified Command of US Forces Japan in Japan. Reuters and Bloomberg reported that at the time, Minister Hegses said in a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani that “Japan is an essential partner in deterring China’s military aggression,” and that “we will reorganize the U.S. Forces Japan into a combat command, increase personnel, and grant them the necessary authority.”
Minister Hegses did not visit South Korea at the time, but held the meeting in Japan and held a defense ministerial meeting in the Philippines.
Regarding Xi’s Southeast Asian tour, Reuters said, “The timing of this visit and the fact that Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia are all targets of Trump’s tariffs provide an opportunity to predict how China will act as a ‘responsible’ superpower, one of its long-held positions.”
“China has a lot to offer Vietnam and other ASEAN countries in these uncertain times,” Nguyen Thanh Trung, a professor of Vietnam studies at Fulbright University in Vietnam, told Reuters. “I think China can be a leader.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar called China a “true friend” during Li Qiang’s visit in June, and has visited China three times since taking office in November 2022, making this the third visit by Xi to Southeast Asia.
Malaysia and Vietnam are both at odds over China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. Anwar declared in September that Malaysia would not give in to China’s demand to stop oil and gas exploration in the oil-rich offshore areas of the South China Sea, Reuters reported.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry’s report stated that it was attempting to negotiate a peace treaty with Russia and the return of the four Kuril Islands, and the Kremlin responded to a reporter’s question on the 8th, saying, “No, there is no contact with the Japanese authorities at this time,” Reuters reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that he was aware that Japan was “hurrying up to fully join all unfriendly and hostile measures against our country,” referring to Japan’s decision to join Western sanctions against Russia for its military actions in Ukraine, and that “given the real situation and the sanctions imposed by Japan on Moscow, it is almost impossible to talk about the possibility of negotiations.”
The spokesman went on to describe the “connection” between the United States and Japan in detail, saying that “this is a measure to strengthen our readiness to respond to emergency situations or crises and to help Japan and the United States defend these territories.”
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union seized the four islands above Hokkaido (the Kuril Islands and the Northern Territories), and Japan attempted to negotiate, claiming that this was a territorial dispute, and it is a “non-diplomatic country” with which no peace treaty has been signed, while South Korea established diplomatic relations with Russia in San Francisco in 1987 through the “matchmaking” of Secretary of State Shultz under the Reagan administration.
In the 1980s, the Republican Reagan regime, with its supply-side advantage, simultaneously threatened nuclear war to break the socialist economy through military build-up, and the Soviet Union donated communist assets to the state and dissolved the Union, and through nuclear reduction negotiations, South Korea established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1987. The Republican Party's socialist backbone-breaking was simultaneously carried out by the first Trump regime's 'fire' threat to North Korea and the CIA's North Korea-US summit project, and the Moon Jae-in regime declared itself the 'driver' in Berlin in 2017. The Trump administration's 'North Korea prosperity' CIA project was dramatized as 'South Korean-style capitalist prosperity in North Korea' CD was delivered at the Hanoi summit, and the North Korea-US summit broke down. The Yoon Seok-yeol administration, which responded to the 'diplomacy first' policy of the Democratic Party's Biden administration, clashed with the strategy of 'pressure to increase military spending' and 'spreading freedom to the North Korean people'. The Trump second-term administration prioritized the Iran nuclear negotiations in its Russian strategy, and the mediation of the Ukraine ceasefire emerged as a topic. North Korea became a secondary priority, and Japan showed a security-first system in the trade war with China.
As a result, the Lee Jae-myung administration's approach to North Korea, which was dependent on Trump, is seen as a restoration of the 'Trump-Moon Jae-in administration's CIA leadership' in the Korean Peninsula, which was pushed out by the Biden administration.
See <Singapore North American Summit Confirmed as CIA Project, KMC Center Director, May 23, 2021>
<CIA Leading North American Negotiations Turns into Neo-Conservative Peace War, May 12, 2018>
<US CIA Separates North Korea from China, Trump Ends KMC System, October 8, 2021>
<Biden Appears, CIA Operations Reduced, Mediator Strategy ‘Liquidated,’ November 8, 2020>
<Haines Participates in Korea Quad Working-Level Work, CIA Operations ‘Liquidated,’ DMZ Demonstration, May 14, 2021>
<Trump’s ‘Potential War’ Spark Rekindled, February 11, 2019>
<North Korea-China Summit, Crossroads of System Negotiations and Disarmament Negotiations, March 29, 2018> References