Seoul carefully weighs Beijing's invitation to 80th WWII commemoration
Seoul has been carefully weighing whether President Lee Jae Myung will attend China's Sept. 3 commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, as Beijing publicly expressed that Lee would be welcome to participate.
Beijing has recently floated the possibility of Lee's participation through various channels, including not only official diplomatic avenues but also private meetings involving scholars, according to multiple sources.
An official invitation from the Chinese government has not yet been delivered to the South Korean government, according to government sources.
However, Seoul views Beijing's continued inquiries about Lee's willingness to attend — conveyed through diplomatic channels — as effectively constituting a de facto invitation, prompting careful deliberation over its response.
The Chinese Embassy in Seoul also told The Korea Herald that 'China welcomes Korea's participation in this year's commemorative event" when asked about Beijing's invitation for President Lee.
'When the 70th anniversary ceremony was held, the attendance of the Korean leader at China's invitation had a positive effect,' the embassy added on Wednesday.
Seoul and Beijing also discussed President Lee's potential participation in the Sept. 3 celebrations during director-general-level talks held in Seoul on Tuesday, The Korea Herald has learned from conversations with government sources.
However, a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in Seoul following the meeting did not mention whether the two sides discussed President Lee's potential attendance at the Sept. 3 commemorations.
Kang Young-shin, director-general for Northeast and Central Asian affairs at the South Korean Foreign Ministry, met with Liu Jinsong, director-general of the Department of Asian Affairs at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, for the talks, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul announced Wednesday.
'Both the Korean and Chinese sides agreed to continue communication at all levels based on a shared understanding to develop Korea-China relations on the occasion of the APEC Summit in Gyeongju,' the ministry said in a statement.
Seoul has high expectations for Xi's first visit to South Korea since July 2014, on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The APEC summit is scheduled to take place in the city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, from late October to early November. It marks South Korea's first time hosting the event in 20 years, since it was last held in Busan in 2005.
President Lee has formally invited Xi to attend this year's APEC summit in South Korea during their first phone call in early June.
Then-President Moon Jae-in visited China twice during his term — in December 2017 and December 2019, but Chinese President Xi Jinping did not make a return visit. Seoul views it as Xi's turn to reciprocate with a visit to South Korea.
Observers note that the invitation comes at a diplomatically delicate time for Seoul and is likely to put President Lee Jae Myung's pragmatic diplomacy to the test.
'China seeks to achieve a quantum leap in Korea-China relations and to check the United States by reinforcing multilateralism in the Indo-Pacific region, through a reciprocal exchange — President Lee Jae Myung's attendance at the Sept. 3 celebrations in return for President Xi Jinping's attendance at the Gyeongju APEC Summit,' said Doo Jin-ho, director of the Eurasia Research Center at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.
Doo said China regards this year's Victory Day on Sept. 3 and the 2025 APEC Summit in Gyeongju as major political events both domestically and internationally.
'With the launch of the Lee Jae Myung administration, Beijing is seen as having high expectations of better Korea-China ties,' Doo said.
'With a Korea–US summit yet to take place, China's invitation to the Sept. 3 event puts the Lee administration's pragmatic diplomacy — including the Korea-US alliance and Seoul's relations with China and Russia — under early pressure,' he added.
China marks Sept. 3 as Victory Day, commemorating its victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, which it regards as part of World War II. The date follows Japan's formal surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. In particular, socialist countries tend to hold major commemorative events on milestone anniversaries that fall in five- or 10-year increments.
In a previous similar case, South Korean President Park Geun-hye attended the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II on Sept. 3, 2015, held at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
However, Park's presence sparked significant controversy at home over whether it was appropriate and raised concerns in the United States, as most Western leaders — including those from the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan — declined to attend, citing political and historical sensitivities.
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