South Korea foreign minister says rough agreement on security reached with US
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South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said the two sides were “actively” negotiating, but South Korea might need more time to strike any trade deal with the US than Japan.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL – South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said his country and the United States had reached a rough agreement on security in tandem with ongoing tariff negotiations, Yonhap news agency reported.
In an interview published on Oct 2, Mr Cho also said the US was reviewing a currency swop deal, which was a key demand from South Korea in tariff talks, but signalled it was not optimistic.
Washington had agreed to lower tariffs on imports from South Korea in return for a US$350 billion (S$451 billion) investment package, but follow-up negotiations to hammer out details, including the structure of the investment package, have stalled.
Mr Cho said the two sides were “actively” negotiating, but South Korea might need more time to strike any trade deal with the US than Japan, which signed on to the details of its investment package in September.
Meanwhile, Seoul and its ally Washington have also been looking at a deal in security areas such as an increase in South Korean defence spending, which is part of the broader package aimed to push down US tariffs.
The minister said Seoul was seeking to announce the security agreement with the US before the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) group in Gyeongju, South Korea, in late October.
US President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Apec meeting.
Mr Trump has said South Korea should be paying for its own military protection and suggested it needed to pay more for the US troop presence there.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Oct 1 the country would boost the 2026 defence budget by 8.2 per cent,
“In the security field, an agreement has already been reached in general, which allows us to increase our national defence capabilities in necessary areas,” Mr Cho told Yonhap.
Working towards the security deal, top South Korean officials have said the two countries are making progress on giving more rights to South Korea on nuclear fuel processing for industrial purposes.
That is currently not allowed under an existing agreement between the two countries.
Mr Cho said he did not rule out a possibility of Mr Trump meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as some “speculative” media reports suggested.
The South Korean President suggested the US President try to meet Mr Kim during his trip to South Korea.
In September, Mr Kim said he was open to talks with the US if Washington stopped insisting his country give up nuclear weapons, North Korean state media reported. REUTERS
