South Korea and the US leaders hold a joint press conference▶ Click here for a larger view
After their summit meeting on the 21st, President Yoon Seok-yeol and US President Joe Biden expressed serious concerns about North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats in a Q&A with reporters, but continued to open up the possibility of humanitarian aid.
President Yoon said, “I and President Biden share serious concerns about North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and missile threats, and we agree on the need to prioritize these issues above any other issue.”
President Biden said, “We are ready to provide a vaccine to North Korea. We can do it immediately, but we have not received a response from North Korea.” Regarding the possibility of meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he said, “It depends on how genuinely you come out of North Korea.”
The press conference was held in a way that reporters from both countries took turns asking questions.
The following is a Q&A with the leaders of the Republic of Korea and the United States.
— (Korean reporter) Many people are unfamiliar with the concept of ‘economic security’. How can the Korean economy benefit from an economic and security alliance with the United States? In addition, if there is a country where it is difficult to share values, can we consider super-strength such as strong export controls like the United States?
▲ (Suk-Yeol Yun) Economic security should deal with things necessary for the lives of our people or to make important industrial products in the same line as national security. This is because ensuring the stability of the supply chain of materials necessary for daily living and industrial production is a problem directly connected to the lives and economy of the people. For example, system semiconductors that are used to make automobiles, we also suffered from the urea water crisis a while ago.
In the past, the world was maintaining a free and universal trade order with the World Trade Organization (WTO) system, but there are always risks in the supply chain due to COVID-19 and various blocks. Since Korea and the United States are countries that share the values of democracy and human rights, for the stable management of supply chains among these countries, economic security issues are addressed by the National Security Council (NSC) of the presidential offices of both countries by designating a department in charge of this issue. We decided to continue discussing these issues and create a framework for economic and security cooperation that helps each other in times of difficulty.
This is not mere cooperation, but we have decided to develop it as a working alliance that can be experienced by the people and businesses of both countries. And even countries that do not share the universal values of democracy such as freedom and human rights like Korea and the United States do not necessarily exclude them from the perspective of world peace, but countries that share values with the expectation of entering into the rule of universal values. It was decided to build a close relationship with each other first.
— (USA reporter) Ask President Yoon first. Are you interested in nuclear bombers or submarines? Ask President Biden. In the joint statement, the premise of meeting with North Korea was not discussed. Also, you didn’t talk about providing vaccines to North Korea, so I’m curious what prerequisites are there in this regard. And before you go to the Japanese meeting, there are likely to be voices demanding that you rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), do you think the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) can be a little more trade deal?
▲ (President Biden) First, to the question of whether to provide a vaccine to North Korea, and to the question of whether we are ready to meet, we are ready to provide a vaccine. So is China. I am ready to do that. I could do it immediately, but I didn’t get a reply.
In the case of the IPEF we are talking about now, it is a very important part. What I’m talking about here, as I said, is an economic strategy. This is for the entire Indo-Pacific region, and we are talking about a supply chain that encompasses a wide variety of products, not just the core supply chain or semiconductors. We have already talked about semiconductors, and we also talked about infrastructure and such capacity (capacity) that provides modern infrastructure.
There is also a section on the digital economy. There are parts like cybersecurity standards, parts about data access, and we’re talking about nothing to do about these parts. In relation to clean energy and renewable energy, such technologies and various tax-related aspects will also have to be negotiated.
And it can be said that even these aspects that can affect international practice are included in this agreement. And we continue to talk about what the TPP also included.
▲ (President Seok-Yeol Yoon) I and President Biden shared serious concerns about North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and missile threats and the need to prioritize these issues above any other issue. In addition, President Biden reaffirmed an effective extended deterrence strategy, and specifically, initiated discussions to expand and strengthen joint training, which is the core of the ROK-U.S. combined defense posture, and coordinated the timely dispatch of strategic assets to the United States if necessary. We will continue to check for additional measures.
And about asymmetric capabilities such as North Korea’s cyber threat. The ROK-U.S. high-level consultative body, including the Extended Deterrence Strategy Consultative Group (EDSCG), will be activated early, and plans to strengthen deterrence will be made concrete.
— (Reporter in South Korea) The President’s Office said that it would show an effective extended deterrence action plan to counter the increasingly sophisticated North Korean nuclear threat. What kind of negotiations were there?
▲ (President Yoon) In the past, we thought that extended deterrence was only talking about a nuclear umbrella. It was decided to continue detailed consultations between the NSCs. To this end, there was a discussion about whether joint exercises between the two countries in preparation for a nuclear attack would also be necessary in various ways.
— (US Reporter) The bilateral relations between Korea and Japan are deteriorating and economic relations are straining. If so, there is a way for the US to strengthen the administration’s economic alliance by resolving the dispute between the two countries. What role can the US play?
▲ (President Biden) You can only ask one question. (All laughs) We’ve been discussing things in a general sense now. After that, (I) will be traveling to Japan. Something similar will be discussed there.
What is important here is that South Korea, the US and Japan have very close triangular economic and military relations. That is why we have a way of resolving these conflicts, whatever barriers to trade. This was a problem with my predecessors, and now I’m seeing this.
Besides that, you already know that I have spent a lot of time trying to solve these relationship problems. In fact, a lot has changed. First of all, democracy in the Pacific region requires closer cooperation than ever before. Close cooperation in economic as well as military aspects is required.
So, together with President Yoon, we said that we should expand this not only to the United States, Japan, and Korea, but also to other South Islands in the Pacific and the Indo-Pacific region.
That’s why I’m sorry that I’ve said this a hundred times until now, but we are making history here, and historically, we are witnessing a very rapid change. So there is a competition between democracy and dictatorship.
This is very unfortunate, but it is proving to be true that this kind of competition took place not only here, but also elsewhere. That is why it is becoming a global problem, not a regional problem. Therefore, a global response is necessary. To do that, we have no choice but to rely on our allies.
For example, South Korea and Japan are showing support and sending support to Ukraine right now. There is such widespread support. All of these things will determine whether we can promote democracy as sustainable. So, President Yoon and I talked about that we can play a very important role in this. Thank.
— (US Reporter) Almost all of the current (Yun Seok-yeol administration) cabinets are men. You said you would try to achieve gender equality. What do you think you can do to increase the representation of women in Korea? What are your plans for gender equality?
▲ (President Yoon) For example, in the current public service society, if you were a minister of the cabinet, not many women could come up to the previous position. Perhaps this is because it hasn’t been long since we started to more actively guarantee women’s fair opportunities in each region, so we plan to ensure these opportunities more actively.
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