Joe Biden boasted that the US, Japan and South Korea had “made history” when the leaders of the three countries held their first-ever trilateral summit at Camp David last year.
The meeting could not have taken place without South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol, a staunch US supporter who steered rapprochement with Japan while taking a more hawkish stance than his leftwing predecessors towards China and North Korea.
With Yoon now facing impeachment after he tried and failed to introduce martial law, there are questions over whether a new government in Seoul — likely from the other end of the political spectrum — might complicate Washington’s efforts under Donald Trump to counter the rise of China as a military superpower, according to diplomats, officials and analysts.