Kim Joon-hyung, a first-term lawmaker-elect from the minor progressive Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP), speaks during an interview with The Korea Times in his office in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Kim Joon-hyung, a first-term lawmaker-elect from the minor progressive Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP), has set his sights on passing a parliamentary resolution, as his inaugural initiative.

This motion would mean a ban on sending South Korean troops abroad in situations of military conflict — especially an envisaged clash between the United States and China over Taiwan.

The former chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) and international relations professor at Handong Global University also said that he will table a series of parliamentary measures to rein in President Yoon Suk Yeol's "war-like diplomacy" to protect the country's interests amid continuing global geopolitical upheavals.

Kim Joon-hyung, a first-term lawmaker-elect from the minor progressive Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP), poses during an interview with The Korea Times in his office in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

"During the Yoon presidency, Korea literally became a pushover, conceding too much of its interests to the United States and Japan while witnessing its relations with China and Russia being aggravated excessively," Kim said during an interview with The Korea Times on Wednesday.

"The problem is that the opposition pinpoints Yoon's diplomacy as one of his worst achievements, while the ruling bloc takes the opposite stance, meaning he will not likely change his diplomatic philosophy even after suffering a crushing defeat in the April 10 general elections. That's the reason I decided to go into politics. If the Assembly fails to control this, the remaining three years of Yoon's presidency will feel excessively prolonged."

Kim is a diplomatic scholar who served in various adviser roles for liberal politicians, including former President Moon Jae-in and main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung. During the Moon administration, he was on one of the expert panels advising Seoul at the 2018 inter-Korean summits and served as the head of the KNDA, an official institution under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which develops the country's long-term diplomatic strategies, from 2019 to 2021.

He joined the RKP, which was created just a month before the elections as a political group whose main focus is containing the Yoon administration and earned a proportional representative seat.

Less than a month before assuming his role as an Assemblyman, Kim has already established a clear-cut to-do list, with the first item being a resolution against dispatching troops to troubled regions overseas.

"With the global superpowers' interests clashing across the globe, the U.S. will count on South Korea to play its role in regional conflicts, with a possible clash in Taiwan being the most concerning," he said.

An E-2 early warning aircraft leads other aircraft at an airbase in southern Taiwan's Pingtung county, Jan. 30. Taiwan was holding spring military drills following its recent presidential election amid threats from China, which claims the island as its own territory that it is determined to annex, possibly by force. AP-Yonhap

Not only diplomatic analysts like Kim but also U.S. officials assume that China is on track and will be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, as the Chinese army marks the 100th anniversary of its founding, and when the country will determine whether to give President Xi Jinping a fourth term.

If this scenario happens, Kim expects the U.S. will likely rely on its Asian allies South Korea and Japan. Seoul is expected to face even greater pressure to dispatch its forces to Taiwan, given South Korea's military strength and Japan's legal restrictions in sending troops overseas.

"Technically, South Korea is in a state of war [against North Korea], and Taiwan is not an ally of ours," Kim said, noting that Seoul severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1992. "Most South Koreans would say they don't want the country to participate in a war in Taiwan."

Similar issues have already tested the South Korea-U.S. alliance in the 2000s.

At the time, the U.S. sought to employ "strategic flexibility" for U.S. Forces Korea by allowing it to be used in other areas, while South Korea opposed this due to concerns that the country may automatically be involved in overseas conflicts.

Then-South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, left, shakes hands with then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the State Department in Washington in this Feb.14, 2005 photo. Reuters-Yonhap

Debates surrounding this issue came to a pause after a 2006 agreement between then-South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, under which Seoul respects the necessity for strategic flexibility, while Washington respects Seoul's position that it shall not be involved in a regional conflict in Northeast Asia against the will of the Korean people.

"During last year's summit between Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden, the two sides elevated their relations to a Global Comprehensive Strategic Alliance," Kim said. "The Yoon administration interprets this as an opportunity for Seoul to participate in the U.S. global strategy, this also means that South Korea can be used for the U.S. global strategy … And the beginning will be a possible military conflict over Taiwan."

Kim said that he plans to conduct surveys with the general public to gauge South Koreans' sentiment on dispatching its forces to Taiwan and urge President Yoon to preemptively declare that Seoul will not participate in such conflicts.

Since Yoon has been reluctant to reflect the opposition's claims, the lawmaker-elect said he will look to a parliamentary resolution, which can be adopted when more than half of the 300 members of the Assembly approve it. Since the RKP secured 12 seats and the DPK has 175, their coalition means that they can pass the resolution without consent from the ruling bloc.

President Yoon Suk Yeol greets his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy during Yoon's visit to Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 15, 2023. Courtesy of South Korean presidential office

Curbing presidential diplomatic power

Along with the resolution, Kim is seeking to table bills requiring the president to obtain approvals from the Assembly before providing lethal military equipment to other countries or offering financial support exceeding a specific threshold to a certain country or global initiative.

These measures are being proposed to directly counter the suspicions that South Korea is indirectly supplying 155-millimeter shells to Ukraine. Though Seoul's existing law prohibits providing weapons to war zones, foreign media outlets are suggesting that the country is providing the ammunition either by refilling U.S. stockpiles or other measures.

The alleged ammunition support coupled with Yoon's hawkish remarks on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, means that relations between Seoul and Moscow have plunged to their lowest ebb during Yoon's presidency. And this is one of the reasons that prompted Russia to strengthen its military ties with North Korea.

"Since South Korea employs a presidential system, the president has a single executive authority to determine the country's diplomatic strategies, and there is no proper tool to contain the president's power," Kim said.

"After losing in the elections, the president's office said all senior secretaries have tendered their resignations to reform Yoon's governing stance, but those in charge of diplomacy and national security were excluded. This means that Yoon will focus on diplomacy because he still has monopolistic power, and the necessity of measures containing the president's power in diplomacy is ever increasing."

President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 20, 2023. EPA-Yonhap

Strategic autonomy

The lawmaker-elect stressed that he believes the desirable diplomatic direction is "strategic autonomy," not "a balancing act between the U.S. and China." The latter is a concept that has long been criticized by the conservatives as "a wrong diplomatic strategy."

Strategic autonomy is used by the European Union to describe its diplomatic goal of acting independently in key matters while collaborating with partners when possible.

"Though South Korea and the U.S. are allies, they are respective sovereign states," Kim said.

"No matter how important the alliance is and how close the two countries' relations are, it is impossible to see a 100 percent alignment between them in all matters of strategic interests. Allies and friendly nations are also negotiable partners in contentious matters, especially those involving economic interests."

The Yoon administration has been promoting that its diplomatic strategy is raising South Korea's voice in international matters, labeling it as a global pivotal state, but Kim said the country is "not pivoting" to engage in countries other than the U.S. and friendly nations, thereby ending up echoing Washington's voice regarding most international matters.

Kim cited that the recent case of Seoul not being invited to this year's Group of Seven (G7) summit shows this trend. In the 2020s, South Korea was invited to the wealthy nations' gathering (2020, 2021 and 2023), but this year's G7 host country, Italy, invited African and South American countries instead, showing the interest of developed nations in the Global South.

"The top three agenda items on the global diplomatic stage are engaging with the Global South, climate change and peace," Kim said. "However, South Korea, under the Yoon presidency, is not leading any of those key agendas as a player, remaining on the outskirts of related international debates."

He also criticized the undoing of the previous Moon administration's efforts to play a leading role. Such as participating in the global fight against climate change, expanding renewable energy or encouraging South Korean corporate giants to invest in eco-friendly technologies, all things that were reversed by the Yoon administration. Also, tensions between the two Koreas continue to heighten, as Yoon relies mostly on hawkish measures to counter North Korea's growing belligerence.

"South Korea is no longer an active player in those agenda areas," he said. "The country no longer has its own initiatives, policies or strategies in agendas that the international community wants to discuss. It is no wonder why G7 countries did not invite Seoul for this year's summit."