Moon’s remark on Monday was interpreted as calling on the Park government to play a delicate balancing act between the two superpowers, which Korea heavily relies on economically and militarily. While South Korea has forged a strong military alliance with the United States, which stations some 30,000 men and women on the peninsula, China is Korea’s biggest trade partner, with trade volume of $228.9 billion in 2013 – more than double of that with the United States, at $103.5 billion the same year.