Overseas Minister Cho Hyun speaks to the Nationwide Meeting’s Overseas Affairs and Unification Committee throughout an annual parliamentary audit of presidency businesses on Oct. 28, 2025. (Yonhap)
In negotiations with the US, the Korean authorities has reportedly proposed together with US$150 billion in investments pledged by Korean firms within the US$350 billion US funding bundle that the Korean authorities is organizing. That proposal seems to replicate the choice for the EU’s private-sector strategy to tariff negotiations that Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed in a latest interview with the international press.
“We informed [the Americans] that we may meet President Trump’s expectations by together with not solely direct authorities investments but additionally as many voluntary company investments as doable [into the US$350 billion investment package],” stated Korean Overseas Minister Cho Hyun throughout a parliamentary audit on the Nationwide Meeting’s Overseas Affairs and Unification Committee on Tuesday.
Cho was responding to feedback by Yoon Hu-duk, a lawmaker for the Democratic Celebration, who famous that the US anticipated Korea to speculate US$25 billion a yr for eight years whereas Korea wished to speculate US$15 billion a yr for 10 years and requested whether or not the US anticipated the Korean authorities to be the supply of all that cash.
The US is presently asking the Korean authorities to spice up the money share of its US$350 billion funding bundle.
“The tactic of funding, the quantity of funding, the timeline, and the way we’ll share the losses and divide the dividends — all of those are fundamental sticking factors,” Lee stated in an interview with Bloomberg Information printed on Monday.
Lee added that whereas Japan’s take care of the US presents one mannequin, the EU’s negotiations current one other.
Whereas Japan has agreed for state-run monetary establishments to speculate US$550 billion, largely in money, to a special-purpose car established by the US, Europe organized for the non-public sector to deal with its US$600 billion funding.
The Korean authorities intends to incorporate the US$150 billion company funding plan introduced through the Korea-US summit in August in its US$350 funding bundle in order that its funding will be oriented on the non-public sector, according to the European mannequin.
When Yoon requested if the Korean authorities was following the European mannequin in its negotiations with the US, Cho stated, “We communicated our place on that methodology to the Individuals. We’re nonetheless attempting to achieve an settlement on numerous particular questions associated to the quantity, methodology and supply of the funding.”
Cho additionally stated that the Koreans and Individuals are discussing whether or not to publish agreements already reached within the space of nationwide safety in the event that they fail to strike a deal within the tariff talks earlier than the Korea-US summit.
“We’re presently wrapping up our dialogue with the Individuals about whether or not to announce the [national security] agreements similtaneously the tariff deal or whether or not to announce them individually,” the Korean international minister stated.
By Search engine optimization Younger-ji, workers reporter
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