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National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik meets with Chinese Ambassador to Korea Dai Bing at the National Assembly on Aug. 20, 2025. (Yoon Woon-sik/Hankyoreh)

Korea’s top lawmaker has been asked to attend China’s “Victory Day” festivities at Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, on Sept. 3.

Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly, is likely to attend the festivities in lieu of Korean President Lee Jae Myung. China celebrates the formal surrender of Japanese forces after World War II on Sept. 3, 1945, as “Victory Day of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.”

Woo’s office said in a press bulletin Wednesday that he had been “officially invited by the Chinese government to China’s ‘Victory Day’ event on Sept. 3” following a meeting with Ambassador Dai Bing, China’s envoy to Korea.

The speaker’s office said he would decide whether to attend after considering all the relevant factors.

China has invited foreign leaders to attend what promises to be an extravagant celebration of the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat. The Chinese had originally explored the possibility of Lee attending, but later extended the invitation to Woo, who is No. 2 in Korea’s order of precedence.

If Woo attends China’s Victory Day event, he’s likely to be accompanied by a delegation consisting of lawmakers from both parties who belong to the Korean-Chinese parliamentarian union. The union’s chair and vice-chair are Kim Tae-nyeon and Park Jeung, both lawmakers with the ruling Democratic Party.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter; Kim Chae-woon, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]