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Analysts said Lee’s approach to foreign policy focused on shared international challenges and interests.
Zhan Debin, director of the Centre for Korean Peninsula Studies at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, said: “Whether in the context of South Korea-Japan, US-Japan-Korea, or US-South Korea cooperation, the common denominator is addressing the so-called ‘China challenge’.
“From Beijing’s perspective, there is little reason to have high expectations of the Lee administration; China should adopt a pragmatic view of Seoul’s new government and its diplomacy.”
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Lee, who was elected in June, made Japan the destination for his first foreign visit rather than the US. He was the first South Korean president to do so since the two countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1965.
