CHINA-RUSSIA-NORTH KOREA TRILATERAL ALIGNMENT CHALLENGES LEE JAE-MYUNG

Emerging trilateral ties complicate South Korea's efforts to engage North Korea diplomatically.

- LAKHVINDER SINGH

South Korea President Lee Jae-myung

The international order is experiencing a profound transformation. Since the launch of the Trump 2.0 administration, escalating trade wars, intensifying U.S.-China rivalry, the protracted Russia-Ukraine conflict, and widening Middle East crises have hastened the turn toward multipolarity. Within this evolving landscape, China, Russia, and North Korea have consolidated ties, signaled most visibly at the September 2025 Tianjin Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit and the Victory Day Parade in Beijing.

For South Korea under President Lee Jae-myung (LJM), who has expressed a desire to advance reconciliation with Pyongyang, this trilateral convergence poses new strategic challenges. By broadening Pyongyang's external patronage from Beijing alone to a joint bloc-based diplomacy with Moscow and Beijing, North Korea gains maneuverability and legitimacy while further restricting Seoul's space for engagement.

THE TRILATERAL ALIGNMENT AND ITS STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE

The visible consolidation of the China-Russia-North Korea alignment was symbolized on September 3, 2025, when Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un stood together at Tiananmen Square during the Victory Day Parade. This marked the first trilateral display of unity at such a high level after a very long time. The parade followed the SCO Summit in Tianjin, where both Beijing and Moscow sought to present themselves as leaders of an emerging Global South coalition intent on resisting Western unilateralism.