According to Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea,

South Korea and the United States on Friday vowed partnership in drug, chip and battery making as well as green, space and 6G initiatives as they pushed traditional security alliance to practical business for new growth, with the U.S. offering immediate supply of vaccines for entire Korean soldiers while Korean enterprises committing $39.4 billion in U.S. investment.

The U.S. will provide Covid-19 vaccines for 550,000 South Korean servicemen and work on vaccine partnership to expand global supply by combining technology and infrastructure of the two countries and extend bilateral alliance “to the field of health in a meaningful measure.

“We believe in the second half of 2021 and going in through 2022 we could produce as many as another billion doses of vaccines, President Joe Biden said in a joint press conference with his visiting Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in.

Moon made the second guest to an in-person summit at the While House since Biden took office after Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide last month in show of Washington’s shift of focus to East Asia. The host and guest this time, both fully vaccinated, were unmasked throughout the summit talks that lasted more than three hours.

Biden announced Sung Kim, the acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs as the U.S. special envoy to North Korea.

“Today has not only been affirmation of our shared history of sacrifice that binds the Republic of Korea and … the United States together, it’s a commitment to expanding cooperation and shaping our shared future in accordance with our democratic values that have made our nation strong and agile and highly competitive in the 21st century’s economies,” Biden said.

“Our two nations also share a willingness to engage diplomatically with the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to take pragmatic steps that will reduce tensions as we move toward our ultimate goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

The two countries have agreed to end the guidelines that restricted South Korea’s own missile capabilities.

Biden touted $39.4 billion investment from Korean chip, battery, and automobile makers.

Moon said the two nations will be cooperating in the infrastructure of semiconductors, batteries, and bio productions and strengthen partnership in civilian space exploration,, 6G technology, green energy and overseas nuclear reactor market.

During roundtable talks, Seoul officials asked for tax incentives and trade sanction exemptions for Korean companies to help expand their businesses in the U.S.

Samsung Electronics confirmed it will invest $17 billion to add a next-gen foundry next to its existing facility in Austin, Texas. Battery makers LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation pledged $17 billion for separate expansion or joint venture investments with U.S, carmakers.

Hyundai Motor vowed $7.4 billion to produce electric vehicles and build charging infrastructure in the U.S. SK hynix will spend $1 billion to build a R&D center in Silicon Valley on AI, NAND solution and other new growth.

DuPont de Nemours plans to create a R&D center for original chip technology development, including photoresist for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography in Korea while Qualcomm vowed $85 million investment in Korean supply chain. GM and Novavax pledged to increase partnership in battery and vaccine with Korean companies.



By Shin Hyun-cheol and Hye-seung Seo

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (May 22, 2021)