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washington [US]May 27 (ANI): While China is South Korea’s biggest business partner, observers say Seoul’s growing ties with the US and other wealthy democracies signal its desire to offset economic pressure from Beijing, Voice of America reported.
After a month of diplomatic efforts, including summits with the U.S. and G7 leaders, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Kim told a hearing in Seoul on Wednesday that “reducing our dependence on China” and “diversifying our trading partners will help our economy.”
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President Yoon Hee-yeol held a cabinet meeting on Monday after the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and said he had “secured the basis for cooperation” with G7 countries including Canada, Australia and Germany on “maintaining the supply chain network”. Important minerals and semiconductors, according to Voice of America.
Voice of America (VOA) is an international broadcaster based in the United States that provides news and information in more than 40 languages.
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South Korea was invited by Japan to the May 19-21 summit as a non-member of the G7, which includes the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
The world’s seven wealthiest countries said in a joint news release Saturday that they would “enhance economic resilience” and counter Beijing’s “economic coercion” and “economic coercion” by “reducing risk and diversifying” trade away from China. Malicious practices”.
In a separate statement issued the same day, they said countries that “attempt to weaponize economic dependence” would “face consequences”, but they did not name any countries.
Experts believe Yoon’s presence at the G7 summit, where countries have united against China’s economic coercion, and his close cooperation with Washington, shows that Seoul has joined their efforts.
“The Yoon administration seeks to work with Washington and other allies to address supply chain and other economic security issues,” said Andrew Yeo, chair of the SK-Korea Foundation for Korean Studies at the Brookings Institution.
“This may require Seoul to join Washington to some extent in countering China’s economic coercion, but the Yoon administration will still be cautious about how it handles issues such as export controls against China,” he added.
As the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, China has been accused of using its economic influence for political and military purposes.
According to the Mercator China Institute in Berlin, between February 2010 and March 2022, China was involved in 123 cases of economic coercion worldwide.
China’s State Internet Information Office said on Sunday that Micron’s products posed a security threat. It gave no details because China bans the use of Micron’s high-end semiconductors in computers that carry sensitive data.
In December 2019, when then Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 virus, China blacklisted Australian coal and imposed restrictions on wine, lobster, timber and barley in 2020. In January of this year, Beijing lifted the ban on coal, VOA reported.
Beijing also restricted tourist travel to South Korea after the deployment of the U.S. missile defense system THAAD in 2017 and canceled K-pop concerts in China.
Yin also paid a state visit to Washington in April.
One of Washington’s main expectations for Seoul is to curb exports of high-end chips to China, experts said. Samsung and South Korea’s SK Hynix are the world’s leading chipmakers.
“The government has made it clear to South Korea that the semiconductors used in Chinese supercomputers could help the Chinese military develop very advanced weapons in areas where the U.S. wants to see restrictions,” said Dennis Wilder, senior director for East Asia during the George W. Bush administration White House National Security Council.
“China is building its own military, and I’m not prepared to trade certain items with China,” President Joe Biden said at a news conference after the summit on Sunday.
He added, “When I was asked by (Chinese) President Xi Jinping (Xi Jinping) why, I said, ‘Because you are using them to make nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.'”
The US president added: “We have now a commitment from all our allies that they will not provide the kind of material that allows them to do so.”
Advanced Micron chips are not the type of high-tech semiconductors Washington wants to prevent Beijing from acquiring for its military, experts say, according to Voice of America. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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