Cho Hyun: "US-Korea Strategic Investment Is a 'Historic Milestone'... Accelerating Security Consultations"

Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun described the official announcement of the "First U.S. Strategic Investment Project" following intense negotiations between South Korea and the United States as an "important historical milestone" on October 2. He emphasized that, on this occasion, "South Korea and the United States will accelerate consultations to achieve visible outcomes in areas such as conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines, civilian uranium enrichment and reprocessing for peaceful use, cooperation in shipbuilding, and the transfer of wartime operational control."

Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun

Minister Cho made these remarks during a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press corps at the Seoul Government Complex on the morning of October 2. He noted, "Based on the progress in consultations related to the U.S. strategic investment project, we have built momentum to pursue follow-up consultations in all areas of the Joint Fact Sheet (JFS) jointly announced by the two leaders at the Korea-U.S. summit in November last year." Minister Cho also explained that during the summit held in New York alongside last month’s United Nations General Assembly, "the leaders agreed to swiftly proceed with follow-up consultations in the security section of the JFS, reaffirmed our intention to expand South Korea’s role and responsibility in the defense of the Korean Peninsula, and enhanced President Trump's understanding regarding the transfer of wartime operational control."

At the meeting, Minister Cho shared an overview of the achievements in summit diplomacy and the status of follow-up measures implemented in the one year and three months since the inauguration of the Lee Jaemyung administration. He added, "With close cooperation among relevant ministries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has identified and is rigorously managing 610 specific performance tasks based on the follow-up measures resulting from summit diplomacy. Of these, 212 tasks—about 35% of the total—have either been fully implemented or have produced significant tangible results. The remaining 382 tasks are also proceeding without issues."

He specifically highlighted as a key accomplishment that the Italian government revised the "super-depreciation regime," which previously applied only to advanced European machinery and software, during the Korea-Italy summit in January, thereby giving Korean companies access to these benefits. He further explained that, regarding the European Union's "reduction of steel duty-free quota," a policy that could have posed a major threat to the Korean steel industry, South Korea secured a stable quota volume compared to competing nations following the Korea-EU summit in June.

Minister Cho also introduced the "Summit Diplomacy Performance Management Task Force (TF)" established within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating, "To ensure that summit diplomacy does not remain a one-off event but leads to substantive and concrete results, we are operating a robust follow-up management system." He added, "We will continue to hold ourselves accountable and ensure that these initiatives materialize into real-world achievements that the public can tangibly feel."

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