Analysts warn that Seoul must tread this delicate geopolitical tightrope with unequalled agility to avoid being drawn into a major-power confrontation.

“As tensions escalate between superpowers, South Korea must retain strategic flexibility – otherwise, it risks becoming the proverbial shrimp crushed between two fighting whales,” said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Unification Studies.

Chang, who is also a former presidential adviser on national security, argues that Beijing must also play a constructive role if it seeks to ease US pressure on South Korea.

“To create more diplomatic room to manoeuvre for Seoul, China should take visible steps to stabilise the Korean peninsula, including restraining North Korea’s provocations,” he told This Week in Asia.

But the room for manoeuvre is shrinking. Koh Yu-hwan, emeritus professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, described South Korea as being mired in a policy dilemma, particularly regarding any potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait.