South Korea's president ruled out joining the US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Monday, citing the need to work with China.
Moon Jae-in was visiting Canberra, but he said he was not considering snubbing the Olympics to protest China's human rights abuses, as several Western nations have done.
He said that we had not received a request from any other country, including the United States, to participate in the diplomatic boycott.
China has warned the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada that they will pay the price for protesting the Games.
The boycott was prompted by China's abuses against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang and its smothering of democracy in Hong Kong.
Moon stressed that South Korea wanted to promote a free and open Pacific region, but also had to consider China's role in trying to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.
He said that Seoul wanted to have a harmonious relationship with Beijing and that we need the constructive efforts of China to allow denuclearization of DPRK North Korea.
Moon is currently on a three-day state visit to Australia, where the two countries signed a series of technology and military cooperation agreements.
They include the sale of 30 howitzers mobile artillery guns to Australia as part of a contract worth around US $720 million.