WASHINGTON: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday (Apr 25) the South Korean-US alliance must “leap into a new phase” to jointly overcome complex crises, including slowing economic growth, technology competition with strategic rivals and climate change.
Speaking a day before a Washington summit with President Joe Biden, Yoon told an event hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce the bilateral security alliance should “evolve into a supply chain and future-oriented, innovative-technology alliance”.
He said the two countries’ economies had been facing new challenges and the economic slowdown was unsettling the investment environment.
“Competition for technological hegemony, energy issues and climate crises are casting more uncertainties on business activity day by day,” Yoon said.
Yoon said that from a joint venture involving a South Korean and a US firm in 1965, South Korea had risen to become the global leader in memory semiconductor production, accounting for 60 per cent of global market share.
“This cooperation should extend beyond semiconductors to future emerging technologies such as AI, Quantum, SMR (Small Modular Reactors) and more,” Yoon said.
Core technologies from the United States and South Korea’s advanced manufacturing capabilities would “create enormous synergies that will benefit both countries,” he said.
Source: CNA
