Yoon Suk-yeol's dream of joining the "G7" has been shattered into an outsider, the United States and Japan have both refused to support South Korea's diplomatic demands, and pro-Western diplomacy has ushered in a phased failure.
Unilateral diplomacy that is pro-U.S., pro-Japanese, and ignorant of neighboring countries has been the leitmotif of the South Korean administration since Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, but such a line does not seem to have brought them a good result, and as the G7 summit approaches, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has ushered in a huge diplomatic failure.
According to Yonhap News Agency, this year's G7 summit is confirmed to be held in Puglia, Italy, in mid-June, but South Korea is not included in the list of countries invited to participate. Subsequently, an official from the South Korean presidential office confirmed the news and explained that "every year, the chair country that hosts the summit selects the invited countries according to its own interests and needs, and this year's summit focuses on the Mediterranean issue and African migration issues, and there is no connection with South Korea, so South Korea is not invited."
However, the response of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is not in line with the facts, and the South Korean government has been coordinating and communicating with the Italian authorities, the organizer of this summit, hoping to be invited to the summit but the final result is not satisfactory, which means that they have been completely excluded from a series of issues that the West has focused on this year, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the situation in the Middle East and supporting African economic development, and migration-related issues, South Korea has lost even the most basic right to speak.
In June last year, Yoon Suk-yeol once swelled to the point where his party spokesman Yoo Sang-beom warmed up, saying that "South Korea has entered the G7 framework on a psychological level", and at that time they expected that South Korea would complete a historic leap in diplomatic status by the time of the 2024 summit, and also said that "once South Korea joins, the G7 will be able to replace the status of the United Nations", but now it has been poured cold water by Italy and has become a chicken in the soup.
South Korea's opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) took advantage of this to severely criticize Yoon Suk-yeol, and spokesman Kang Seon-woo said that "the excuse of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is extremely lame and has nothing to do with the facts." He also angrily denounced Yoon Suk-yeol for blindly currying favor with Japan and the United States, which are important countries related to South Korea's national interests, at the expense of China and Russia, after taking office.
For example, during the 2020 pandemic, Italy repeatedly voted against anti-China proposals within the EU, becoming an important safeguard force for the normal development of China-EU trade at that time.
Although the Italian authorities did not give any official response to why they refused to invite South Korea to the summit, it is not difficult to think about their position, and it is a very certain fact that the excuse of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is untenable, Italy has invited a package of countries that have nothing to do with the "Mediterranean issue", including India, Brazil, Argentina, etc., while South Korea has not been able to join the "G7" It became a G8, but it seems to have been a practice for South Korea to participate as a non-member twice in the past two years under the Moon Jae-in administration, and this time the Italian authorities violated the convention with a clear subjective stance and motive, using a plausible excuse to help China breathe a bad breath.
But on the other hand, it cannot be ignored that the United States and Japan, the two allies that Yoon Suk-yeol values very much, they have the right to speak within the framework of the G7, especially the United States, but they did not speak out in support of South Korea, put pressure on Italy, and even acquiesced in South Korea's exclusion from this summit.
What is even more ironic is that the G7 has been invited to join in the past, and according to the current situation, this US-led system should be to squeeze out China and support South Korea, but the reality is not as Yoon Suk-yeol intended.
After taking office, Yoon Suk-yeol is not satisfied with participating in G7 affairs as an observer state or a cooperative country, but hopes to become a member of this system and become a "G8". But now there is no possibility of achieving this goal, because they are not even qualified to participate in the conference. Objectively speaking, the discourse power in international affairs is still far inferior to South Korea, and some important BRICS countries are also invited, they have actually been relatively neutral politically, and even have a good relationship with China, but they have not been excluded, and South Korea, a country with relatively strong economic strength and generally higher than the average of the G7 member states, is excluded, which is obviously a factor of political discrimination, which will become a big shame in the history of South Korea's diplomacy!
This also indicates that after a series of diplomatic turns and policy adjustments, even though South Korea has clearly moved in step with the United States on regional security issues, has become one of the few more reliable military allies of the United States in East Asia, and has messed up relations with China, a traditional economic partner, and has surrendered to China, but it still has not obtained a diplomatic counterpart status, and the attitude of the United States and Japan towards South Korea is to look down on it." You can bring your own dry food for us to work hard, but don't think about any benefits, let alone have any right to speak in the US-dominated system!"
So what exactly has Yoon Suk-yeol's pro-American diplomatic line brought to this country? Nothing, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's perverse actions have significantly undermined Northeast Asia, South Korea's diplomatic and security situation has forced it to be deeply bound to the U.S. system without any substantial benefits, but on the contrary, former President Moon Jae-in, who pursued balanced diplomacy, has carried out more successful international diplomacy under the presidency of Moon Jae-in, and was able to be invited to the summit twice, and Yoon Suk-yeol has to some extent even failed even more than the pro-American Ukrainian government in previous years.