South Korea’s Yoon set to address joint session of US Congress

SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is set to speak in front of a joint session of the US Congress later this month when he visits Washington, his office confirmed after Bloomberg reported the address would take place.

The leader will travel to Washington for a state visit and state dinner on April 26, hosted by President Joe Biden.

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers met Mr Yoon in Seoul on Wednesday and informed him that a formal invitation from congressional leaders would be forthcoming.

The delegation also met South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and toured a Samsung facility on Tuesday. They also visited the Demilitarized Zone buffer that divides the two Koreas.

The speech before the Congress is set to take place on April 27, they said.

Mr Yoon’s office confirmed he had accepted the invitation from the American lawmakers to deliver the speech, which is expected to address a range of issues of mutual interest between the US and South Korea, including economic cooperation, regional security, and North Korea’s nuclear programme.

It will be the first by a South Korean president in the US Congress in 10 years.

Mr Yoon’s visit is an effort to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the US-South Korea alliance, which both sides have repeatedly said is critical to advancing peace, stability, and prosperity for the two countries, the Indo-Pacific region, and around the world.

The Biden administration has been courting South Korea, in an effort to move it away from Beijing. Seoul, for years, has tried to strike a delicate balance between its biggest trading partner, China, and its main military ally, the US.

Mr Yoon came to office in May 2022, pledging to take a tough line on China, and has since stepped up security cooperation with Washington.

But his administration has not offered its full-throated support for Mr Biden’s initiative to curb exports of semiconductor technology to China.

South Korean companies won a one-year reprieve from sweeping US export controls unveiled in October 2022 that prevent semiconductor firms from bringing in equipment for their advanced facilities in China.

Without a licence extension, it is unclear how major South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix would proceed – both depend on Beijing as a key market and a manufacturing site for their memory chips.

The White House has been trying to incentivise South Korean companies to invest in the US through subsidies, though the money comes with strings attached that prohibit firms from significantly expanding in China. BLOOMBERG