SEOUL—To see the Biden administration’s balancing act with the U.S.’s two most important Asian allies, just look at suit lapels.
During the first leg of a multicity trip, Secretary of State
Antony Blinken
and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sported blue pins while in Tokyo—a show of solidarity with Japanese abducted by North Korea.
But on Wednesday, as the two officials arrived in Seoul, the pins were gone, a recognition that the matter carries less weight in a South Korea that currently gives priority to engagement with the
regime.
After four years of relative U.S. inattention to its allies, President Biden has pledged to rebuild ties with foreign friends, choosing two partners central to Washington’s challenges with a rising China and an increasingly nuclear North Korea.
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