S. KOREA'S DIPLOMATIC STANCE AHEAD OF G7

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As reported earlier, President Moon Jae-in accepted President Donald Trump's invitation to attend the G7 Summit taking place in the US later this year. Trump's envisioned expansion of the G7 is an opportunity for Korea to raise its global profile but diplomatically, it may require complicated calculations.

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​US President Donald Trump believes the Group of 7 is outdated, and is pushing to expand membership to include South Korea, Russia, Australia, India and possibly Brazil. He extended the very first invitation to Korea and President Moon Jae-in willingly accepted. Moon said Korea will do its part in both quarantine and the economy.

[Soundbite] KANG MIN-SEOK(PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON) : "It would mean Korea becomes a formal member of a new international group, the G11 or G12. This implies Korea's emergence as a leading nation in maintaining order across the globe."

Seoul will proceed with concrete discussions while listening to what the US, this year's G7 host, is planning. A Foreign Ministry official noted that Korea has never been a member of the G7 so it needs to look into membership procedures, and hold consultations on ways to address current regulations. Such remark implies Seoul is not ruling out the possibility of Washington's goal of expanding the G7 not being realized. The UK and Canada are highly resistant to Russia's participation. Japan maintains a rather ambiguous stance. Strengthening Korea's global standing does not sit well with Tokyo but it cannot easily object to the plan spearheaded by the U.S. Responding to a related question, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga only said that Washington and Tokyo hold close dialogue. There's growing attention on whether South Korea will gain an opportunity to widen its diplomatic influence through a possible expansion of the G7 in a post-COVID-19 era.