This article is by Yoo Jee-hye, Sarah Kim and read by an artificial voice.

President Lee Jae Myung's back-to-back summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Gyeongju have revealed the contours of his emerging foreign policy - one that anchors South Korea's security in its alliance with Washington while seeking to revive its economy through improved cooperation with Beijing.
In talks between Lee and Trump on Wednesday, Seoul and Washington broke through months of deadlock to conclude a trade and investment agreement and took a striking step toward deeper military collaboration.
The United States accepted South Korea's proposal to cap annual investment at $20 billion for the next decade, dropping earlier demands for a much larger upfront payment of $350 billion. Even more dramatically, Trump approved Lee's request for nuclear fuel for South Korean submarines to track naval activity by North Korea and China, a gesture hailed by Seoul officials as a symbolic reaffirmation of the alliance's strength.
Though the decision could complicate Seoul's relations with Beijing, officials said it underscored deepening trust between South Korea and the United States. Seoul officials have also said the allies are preparing a joint policy paper that will codify their expanded defense and economic cooperation.
At a press conference on Saturday, Lee called the United States "crucial" to resolving tensions on the Korean Peninsula, while stressing the need for his "END initiative" vis-à-vis North Korea - Exchange, Normalization and Denuclearization. He also repeated his call for Washington under Trump to act as a "peacemaker" while Seoul seeks to be a "pacemaker."
Lee is also expected to use an upcoming meeting in Seoul between South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-baek and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to discuss alliance modernization and reaffirm U.S. support for the transfer of wartime operational control before his term ends.
If Lee's meeting with Trump underscored the solidity of Seoul's alliance with Washington, the South Korean president's subsequent summit with Xi on Saturday highlighted his intent to balance that partnership with pragmatic engagement toward Beijing.

Their first bilateral summit not only marked Xi's first visit to South Korea in 11 years, but also signaled an effort to repair ties strained since Beijing's retaliation over Seoul's 2017 decision to allow the deployment of a U.S. antimissile system.
Lee called for "strengthened strategic communication" between Seoul and Beijing and expressed hope that China's recent outreach to the North could "create conditions for dialogue" between the two Koreas. Xi, for his part, described South Korea and China as "inseparable partners in cooperation" and pledged to "jointly address challenges and promote regional peace."
The two sides signed seven memorandums of understanding, including a renewal of the won-yuan currency swap and a 2026-2030 economic cooperation plan. Other agreements covered innovation, startups, service trade, and joint efforts against online fraud - which Seoul described as pragmatic, "livelihood-oriented" cooperation.
Still, the modest scope of the agreements reflected Seoul's awareness of the risks of leaning too far toward either the United states or China.
Hwang Ji-hwan, a professor of international relations at the University of Seoul, said the Lee administration's emphasis on pragmatic diplomacy "shows Seoul broadening its engagement to include China while remaining firmly anchored in the U.S. alliance."
But he cautioned that "because Washington and Beijing only papered over their immediate trade dispute" during Trump and Xi's summit on Thursday, while deferring talks on deeper issues like security and Taiwan, "any shift in their relationship will inevitably ripple through both Korea-U.S. and Korea-China ties."

Analysts noted that Lee and Xi sid...

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