South Korean acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho is "highly likely" to skip the Shangri-La Dialogue, where he had been expected to hold his first meeting with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to the Defense Ministry in Seoul on Friday.
Concerns are mounting among some in Seoul, as Kim’s absence at the global defense forum means there will be no defense ministerial talks with the US until after South Korea’s early presidential election on June 3.
“We will have to review the matter in light of the remaining time, but it is highly likely that he will not attend considering various circumstances, including the date of the event just before the presidential election,” a senior Defense Ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity on Friday. “We have viewed that there are multiple difficulties associated with him attending.”
The Shangri-La Dialogue, which has been recognized as Asia’s premier defense forum where ministers discuss the region’s most pressing security challenges and engage in bilateral and multilateral talks, will take place in Singapore from May 30 to June 1 this year, just days before South Korea’s early presidential election.
The election was scheduled for June 3 following the April 4 removal of former President Yoon Suk Yeol from office over his martial law declaration Dec. 3.
The unnamed Defense Ministry official said Kim made the decision on his own to skip the event, not at the direction of acting Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
Kim’s no-show marks the first time in 22 years that a South Korean defense chief has missed the Shangri-La Dialogue.
South Korea has traditionally dispatched its defense minister to the Shangri-La Dialogue since 2004, after the event hosted by was first launched in 2002. From 2002 to 2003, a director-general for arms control at the Defense Ministry participated, during a period when the Shangri-La Dialogue had not yet risen to the status of a major global defense forum.
For South Korea, the Shangri-La Dialogue has served as a platform not only to hold bilateral defense ministerial talks with its US and Japanese counterparts, and trilateral defense ministerial talks with the US and Japan, but also to meet counterparts from around the world to discuss pending issues, including arms and weapons exports.
Kim’s absence at the Shangri-La Dialogue has raised concerns given that key US officials have skipped South Korea — which is set to undergo a leadership change as soon as a new president is elected, without a transition period — during their Asia-Pacific tours.
Senior Bureau Official for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US State Department Sean O’Neill also excluded South Korea during his trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan and Hawaii from April 16 to 25.
Hegseth's exclusion of South Korea from his first Indo-Pacific tour in March, and the country's omission from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's multination trip to Japan, Thailand and India, were also were also noted with concern, though there was an understanding that it was tricky for US officials to visit South Korea amid the political turmoil here.
Such omissions from high-level diplomatic itineraries have alarmed some in Seoul, particularly at a time when policy coordination with Washington is more critical than ever. The second Trump administration is currently reviewing its foreign and security policies, and decisions are being made that will shape the region’s strategic landscape.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
