South Korean President Moon Jae-in will ask US President Joe Biden for help securing Covid vaccines when heads of state and government meet in Washington on Friday, according to a foreign policy expert.
“I think the South Koreans have given vaccine diplomacy a high priority as it is the great outcome of this summit,” Victor Cha, professor and vice dean at Georgetown University, told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on Friday.
The meeting with Moon is Biden’s second personal summit with a leader from a foreign land. He met Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Washington last month.
Domestic pressure on Moon has increased to push for faster vaccine delivery as rising Covid cases have forced authorities to extend social distancing measures several times. Moon has pledged to achieve “herd immunity” by November, but a global vaccine shortage threatens his promise. Herd immunity occurs when enough people in the population are vaccinated or infected and the disease can no longer spread wildly.
A South Korean national flag, center and U.S. national flags fly at the Imjingak Pavilion near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Paju, South Korea on Saturday, April 29, 2017.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
North Korea takes a back seat
The urgency to ensure supplies of Covid vaccines would likely overshadow Moon’s efforts to revive talks on North Korea.
“I think President Moon is obviously more interested in getting to North Korea quickly since he has less than a year in office,” said Cha, who was director of Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council from 2004 to 2004 2007 and is Senior Vice President and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He said Biden was “not against” diplomacy with North Korea, but the government already had a lot on its plate, including tensions in the Middle East and strategic competition with China.
Additionally, North Korea does not appear to be interested in engaging in dialogue with the country at the moment, which remains on hold due to the pandemic, Cha said.
Still, Moon and Biden are likely to signal that they are “fully aligned” on issues surrounding North Korea, Cha added.
Ahn Ho-young, South Korean ambassador to the US from 2013 to 2017, agreed that the summit could cover topics other than North Korea.
Ahn told CNBC’s Capital Connection on Friday that while in Washington, the leaders of the United States and South Korea spent much time discussing issues related to North Korea.
“I think this summit is pretty unique … because this time, I think, we expect our leaders to discuss more and spend more time on topics like vaccines, batteries or semiconductors,” he said.
“There are so many things we could do together between Korea and the United States.”
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