President Lee Praises Kim Junggwan, Who Led U.S. Negotiations, as "Exceptionally Talented and Loyal Public Servant"

Achievements of U.S. Investment Negotiations Reaffirmed

"Please Encourage Our Public Servants"

Kim Junggwan: "Seeing Risks Within Gains, Finding Opportunity Amid Hardship"

Reflections on a Year of Negotiations

On October 2, President Lee Jaemyung publicly commended Minister Kim Jungkwan of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, who led the strategic investment negotiations with the United States. This marked a renewed recognition of Minister Kim's negotiation skills, following the achievement of a broad agreement in the US investment talks that had continued for about a year after the conclusion of the Korea-US tariff negotiations.

Kim Jungkwan, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, is giving a briefing on the US investment project at the Government Complex Sejong on the 1st.

On this day, President Lee shared Minister Kim's post titled "A Year in Retrospect on the US Investment Negotiations" on X (formerly Twitter), stating, "Minister Kim Jungkwan, you did an excellent job." He continued, "I ask everyone to send words of encouragement to a talented and loyal public servant who has truly poured his heart and soul into serving our national interests," adding, "I am confident he will work even harder in the future."

Earlier, Minister Kim had reflected on the negotiation process on his own X account, announcing that a broad framework for the US strategic investment had been agreed upon about a year after the conclusion of the Korea-US tariff negotiations. He particularly mentioned that during crucial moments in the talks, he recalled the strategy from "The Art of War": 'The wise always consider both gains and losses.' This means that, from the perspective that a wise individual evaluates the benefits and risks together when making decisions, he had carefully assessed both the potential for investment recovery and business risk to ensure large-scale US investments align with Korea’s national interests.

The government has consistently maintained "commercial rationality" as the core principle of the US investment negotiations. At a National Assembly briefing on September 22, Minister Kim also emphasized that he had thoroughly examined the profitability and risks of the projects proposed by the US, and stressed that such US investments should not simply be about injecting capital but serve as an opportunity to expand Korean companies’ entry into the American market.

At a cabinet meeting on September 29, President Lee shared an anecdote in which US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick described Minister Kim as "tough," and remarked, "From our perspective, he is an excellent negotiator." The previous day, President Lee also stated, "Despite difficulties, Minister Kim and the Trade Negotiations Headquarters have given their utmost to the US investment negotiations and have delivered good results; please continue to support them."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.