S. Korea must engage separately with Democratic Congress, Republican administration: experts

A Democratic sweep in the U.S. midterm elections could complicate South Korea’s diplomacy and stall trade and nuclear negotiations with Washington, experts say, urging Seoul to adopt more sophisticated tactics. At a roundtable titled “Shifts in U.S. foreign policy after the midterm elections — and how South Korea should navigate key issues in the Seoul-Washington alliance,” hosted by North East Asia Research (NEAR), a Seoul-based think tank, Cho Hyun-dong, former South Korean ambassador to the U.S., said diplomacy with Washington will become more challenging as Seoul must engage separately with the Democratic Congress and the Republican administration. “Having previously dealt with a unified power structure where the Donald Trump administration and the Republican Party were in control, South Korea now faces a diplomatic landscape with more challenges than opportunities,” said Cho, who is also a chair professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. “If a weakened Trump administration faces stronger congressional oversight, implementing the joint fact sheet will become ev