South Korea Acting President hopes for reciprocal ties with Trump administration

SEOUL – South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok said on Jan 21 he hoped for bilateral relations with Washington to develop more reciprocally under the Trump administration, citing concerns about how US policies might hit Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

“The government will strive to further strengthen policy cooperation with the United States and promote mutual interests based on the shared value of the Korea-US alliance,” Mr Choi said, citing the alliance’s slogan of We Go Together.

Mr Choi said he would seek to have a phone call with US President Donald Trump at the earliest possible time, hours after Mr Trump was sworn in for his second term.

Mr Choi, the Finance Minister, has been serving as South Korea’s acting president

since Dec 27, 2024, trying to steer the country through its worst political crisis in decades after the impeachments of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and President Yoon Suk Yeol over Mr Yoon’s short-lived bid to impose martial law on Dec 3.

Mr Trump, who held a 12-minute phone call with Mr Yoon just a day after his victory in the November presidential election, has not had a phone call with either Mr Han or Mr Choi.

Earlier on Jan 21, Mr Choi congratulated Mr Trump on his inauguration in a post on social media platform X, saying, “The Republic of Korea looks forward to Making the Alliance Great Again”.

From South Korea, Mr Cho Hyun-dong, Ambassador to the US, attended Mr Trump’s inauguration ceremony held on Jan 20 as the government representative, while most others, such as delegations of ruling and opposition parties, could not attend the indoor event with limited seats, Yonhap news agency reported.

Mr Chung Yong-jin, chairman of retail conglomerate Shinsegae Group travelled to Washington, DC, at the invitation of Mr Donald Trump Jr and watched the event at the Capital One Arena, according to the report, among other South Korean business leaders including Coupang CEO Kim Bom who planned to attend it.

“South Korea’s domestic political turmoil left it at a diplomatic disadvantage at the beginning of the second Trump administration,” said Professor Leif-Eric Easley of Ewha University in Seoul, comparing it with China sending Vice-President Han Zheng and Japan sending Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya to meet their counterparts.

Tariffs and EV

Mr Choi also said Seoul would review response measures to Mr Trump’s proposed policies, particularly on tariffs and electric vehicles, which are expected to affect its economy both directly and indirectly.

In 2024, South Korea earned a record-high trade surplus of US$55.7 billion (S$75.6 billion) with the US, up 25.4 per cent from 2023, raising worries that Mr Trump might seek trade curbs.

Experts say South Korea’s defence cost sharing for some 28,500 US troops deployed in the country to deter nuclear-armed North Korea might also be under threat.

Mr Trump has previously called for Seoul to pay more for the deployment, despite a five-year deal signed in October prior to the November 2024 election.

South Korea’s stock market reacted quickly to news of Mr Trump’s policies.

The benchmark Kospi index erased early gains of more than 1 per cent to turn lower, after Mr Trump said he was thinking of imposing 25 per cent tariffs on imports from neighbouring Canada and Mexico, where South Korean firms also run factories.

Shares of South Korean battery makers also plunged, with LG Energy Solution falling 5 per cent, as Mr Trump revoked the previous administration’s electric-vehicle subsidy policy, but the shipbuilding sector, which is on his radar for cooperation, rallied. REUTERS