Through most of 2015, the South Korean leadership and media viewed foreign policy in accord with three basic assumptions. First, it was important to keep the door to North Korea open, appealing to it with “trustpolitik” and satisfying China as well as Russia that diplomacy was in the forefront, while stoking their egos with images of a “honeymoon” between Park Geun-hye and Xi Jinping and the “Eurasian Economic Initiative” to cater to Vladimir Putin’s priority for development of the Russian Far East. Second, repetition of claims that bilateral relations with the United States had never been better buttressed by ever-closer military ties could limit the fallout from clashes with Japan over the “comfort women” issue. Third, despite rising tensions in East Asia, South Korea had a growing opportunity as a middle power to promote multilateral diplomacy through a “Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative.” By the fall of 2016, these themes had virtually faded into oblivion. Realignment was occurring in South Korean foreign policy, which few had anticipated a year earlier.

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