seoul after infuriating china over her trip to taiwan us house speaker nancy pelosi met south korean political leaders in seoul on thursday but avoided making direct public comments on relations with beijing and taipei that could further increase regional tensionspelosi the first house speaker to visit taiwan in 25 years said wednesday in taipei that the american commitment to democracy in the selfgoverning island and elsewhere remains ironclad in response china on thursday began military exercises including missile strike training in six zones surrounding taiwan in what could be the biggest of their kind since the mid1990safter visiting taiwan pelosi and other members of her congressional delegation flew to south korea a key us ally where about 28500 american troops are deployed on wednesday evening as part of an asian tour that included earlier stops in singapore and malaysiashe met south korean national assembly speaker kim jin pyo and other senior members of parliament on thursday after that hourlong meeting pelosi spoke about the bilateral alliance forged in blood during the 195053 korean war and legislative efforts to boost ties but didnt directly mention her taiwan visit or the chinese protestswe also come to say to you that a friendship the relationship that began from urgency and security many years ago has become the warmest of friendships pelosi said in a joint news conference with kim we want to advance security economy and governance in an interparliamentary wayneither pelosi nor kim took questions from journalistskim said he and pelosi shared concerns about north koreas increasing nuclear threat he said the two agreed to support their governments push for denuclearization and peace on the korean peninsula based on both strong deterrence against north korea and diplomacypelosi and her delegation later spoke by phone with south korean president yoon suk yeol on the alliance foreign policy and other issues yoon is on vacation this week but critics accuse him of intentionally shunning a facetoface meeting with pelosi in consideration of ties with china south koreas biggest trading partner yoons office said it had reviewed national interests and that yoons vacation plan had already been set up when about two weeks ago pelosis side contacted his office about a possible meetingduring the phone conversation pelosi and other members of her congressional delegation didnt bring up the taiwan issue and yoon also didnt raise the matter yoons office saidin recent years south korea has been struggling to strike a balance between the united states and china as their rivalry has deepened yoon a conservative took office in may with a vow to boost south koreas military alliance with the united states and take a tougher line on north korean provocationslater thursday pelosi visited a border area with north korea that is jointly controlled by the americanled united nations command and north korea she became the highestlevel american to go to the joint security area since thenpresident donald trump visited in 2019 for a meeting with north korean leader kim jong unsitting