Did South Korea ‘pop champagne too early’ for US-China balancing act at Apec?

However, analysts say Seoul could pay a steep price for trying to hedge between two rivals locked in strategic competition, with both South Korea’s export-driven economy and its long-term security posture at stake.

“I am afraid South Korea popped the champagne too early,” Choo Jae-woo, a professor of Chinese foreign policy at Kyung Hee University, told This Week in Asia.

Seoul hailed the first summit in 11 years between Lee and Xi as a milestone in mending ties.

“It helped fully restore our bilateral relations and put us back on the path of mutual prosperity as strategic cooperative partners,” Lee said in a Facebook post on Sunday.