Blinken will hold talks with counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Monday, the same day a warrant expires to arrest suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol who unsuccessfully tried to impose martial law on December 3.
Blinken will head afterwards to Tokyo, making it crucial in the eyes of his advisors not to snub South Korea, which has a fraught and often competitive relationship with Japan, a fellow US ally also home to thousands of American troops.
Yoon joined Biden for a landmark three-way summit with Japan’s prime minister and -- months before declaring martial law -- was picked to lead a global democracy summit, a signature initiative for the outgoing US administration.
Blinken may face some criticism from the South Korean left for the visit but should be able to navigate the political crisis, said Sydney Seiler, a former US intelligence officer focused on Korea now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Blinken can dodge a lot of these domestic South Korean landmines relatively easily and contextualise it not as trying to help the ruling party or artificially create a sense of normalcy where it otherwise isn’t,“ Seiler said.
- Change in both allies -
Paradoxically, while Biden worked closely with the conservative Yoon, Trump in his first term enjoyed a warm relationship with then progressive president Moon Jae-in, who encouraged the US president’s groundbreaking personal diplomacy with North Korea.
Progressive opposition leader Lee Jae-myung -- who himself faces election disqualification in a court case -- supports diplomacy with North Korea.
Lee has criticised deployment of US-made THAAD missile defences, which Washington says are meant to protect against North Korea but which China sees as a provocation.
US officials said they had no warning of Yoon’s imposition of martial law, which brought masses of protesters to the streets.
“I think Korea is one of the most powerful stories in the world about the emergence of democracy and democratic resilience, and we’ll continue to look to Korea to set that example,“ Blinken said.
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