Anchor: President Lee Jae Myung has held his first news conference, marking the first 30 days of his presidency. During the two-hour town hall-style event Thursday morning, Lee reaffirmed that the focus of his foreign policy is pragmatism and he will seek dialogue with Pyongyang and improve ties with Beijing and Moscow while continuing to pursue robust trilateral cooperation with Washington and Tokyo. 
In the first report of our coverage, our Kim Bum-soo has more on Lee's foreign policy plans.

Report: President Lee Jae Myung says that maintaining strong ties with Washington and Tokyo and improving strained relations with Beijing and Moscow are the basis of his “pragmatic diplomacy.”

[Sound bite: President Lee Jae Myung (Korean-English)]
“We are doing our best to derive mutually beneficial, win-win results in the South Korea-U.S. trade negotiations based on the principle of pragmatic diplomacy centered on national interests. ... With pragmatic diplomacy based on the solid South Korea-U.S. alliance and close South Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation, and by swiftly improving relations with China and Russia, [the government] will safeguard peace and the lives of the people.”  

On the North Korea front, the first priority is resuming dialogue and reducing hostility. 

[Sound bite: President Lee Jae Myung (Korean-English)]
“You must engage in diplomacy even during war. You have to talk. Completely severing communication is really foolish. ... Dialogue and communication are really important. We should each take the path that’s mutually beneficial. If our goal is not to annihilate each other, we must take the mutually beneficial path within safe parameters. That’s dialogue and communication and coexistence.”

Responding to a Japanese reporter, the president also sought to dispel concerns that his government might not cooperate well with Tokyo, calling the two sides strategically inseparable partners.  

Lee also expressed his support for Japan’s efforts to resolve the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea. 

But walking that thin line between the U.S. and China, and another thin line between Japan and North Korea, will be a daunting task for the Lee administration. 

While officials from Seoul and Washington struggle to strike a deal on tariffs, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has just canceled his trip to Seoul next week. 

The presidential office in Seoul has acknowledged in the meantime that Beijing has floated the idea of inviting Lee to China for its Victory Day military parade — a litmus test for the new South Korean president as he navigates the power dynamics.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.