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President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at a third caucus of his People Power Party on March 8 in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province. (pool photo)

The South Korean and US governments have begun coordinating the key items on the agenda of the summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and US President Joe Biden slated to take place on April 26.

When Yoon and Biden sit down together in Washington, following previous meetings in Seoul last May and in Phnom Penh on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit last November, they’re expected to discuss a wide range of issues, including deterrence against North Korea, economic security, cutting-edge technology and outstanding issues in the region and around the world.

During his visit to the US, Kim Sung-han, the director of South Korea’s National Security Office, told foreign correspondents in Washington on Tuesday that Yoon will treat his state visit to the US as an opportunity “to proactively explore ways to qualitatively strengthen the ROK-US alliance’s capability to execute nuclear deterrence against North Korea.”

ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.

“As US government officials reaffirm the robustness of their pledge to extended deterrence against North Korea, we hope that the joint exercises and the deployment of various strategic assets that are currently underway will help the Korean public feel confidence in the US’ defense commitments,” Kim said.

“We’re asking for protocols to be established allowing South Korea to take part in planning and executing the US’ utilization of nuclear weapons. It should be noted that the series of steps taken recently does not mean the end of strengthening extended deterrence, since that’s something we’ll have to keep working on in several respects,” commented a high-ranking official in the South Korean government.

The presidential office said that “ROK-US alliance in action, advancing into the future” has been chosen as the theme of Yoon’s state visit to the US, which falls on the 70th anniversary of the alliance between the two countries. Next month’s visit will be the first state visit to the US by a South Korean president in 12 years, since 2011.

The announcement of Yoon’s visit to the US comes as his administration seeks to improve relations with Japan by proposing “third-party repayment” as the solution to the issue of compensating Koreans mobilized into forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule over Korea. Stronger relations could then serve as the basis for enhancing trilateral cooperation with the US and Japan.

Yoon’s state visit to the US appears to be giving his administration cover to treat Korean participation in the Quad working group as a foregone conclusion.

The Quad, short for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is a US-led deliberative body whose other members are Japan, Australia and India. Under the Biden administration, the Quad was upgraded to a summit-level group.

When asked about the possibility of Korea participating in the Quad, a high-ranking official in the government said, “The Yoon administration has emphasized Quad’s importance in the Indo-Pacific Strategy. As a continuation of that, we think we’ll have to proactively accelerate our participation in the Quad working group.”

Since his campaign for president, Yoon has said he wants South Korea to participate in the Quad working group as a form of extended deterrence against the North Korean nuclear threat. But that idea has been criticized because unilaterally pursuing a policy of pressure against China could do more harm than good, in light of South Korea’s dependence on trade with China and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, reported Wednesday that the US government has approached the South Korean and Japanese governments about setting up a deliberative body to bolster cooperation on nuclear deterrence.

“The US means to reinforce security cooperation with South Korea and Japan now that they’re mending ties,” the newspaper explained.

A high-ranking official in the South Korean government denied knowing anything about the report, while noting that “there are already several deliberative schemes aimed at strengthening extended deterrence against North Korea” and that “fairly in-depth deliberations have been carried out to find a more effective mechanism.”

Along with national security issues, economic security is likely to be another major item on the summit agenda.

As the US aggressively pursues its interests, subsidies for electric vehicles in the US’ Inflation Reduction Act and for semiconductor factories in the CHIPS and Science Act have been observed putting Korean companies at a disadvantage. That presents an urgent challenge for the Yoon administration, which has staked out a pro-corporate stance.

“The US also seems to be paying close attention to how the CHIPS and Science Act will affect its allies. In that context, there have been some calls for [the subsidies] to be delayed until a more detailed impact analysis has been completed,” the official said.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter; Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent

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