Seoul weighs creating separate channel with Washington for warship request

The Korean government is considering opening a separate negotiating channel with the U.S., responding to President Donald Trump’s push for Korea to build 10 U.S. warships, multiple sources within the ruling party said on Tuesday.

Answering the request — one of Washington's top priorities — could provide leverage in a broader set of stalled Korea-U.S. negotiations, experts say. The move also comes as tensions have risen over the Korean government's treatment of Coupang and its revised Network Act, which places U.S. technology platforms under increased regulatory and financial obligations.

As part of the proposal, Seoul is looking to signal its willingness to build the warships before asking Washington to establish a dedicated bilateral negotiating channel. The channel would allow the two governments to work through legal, regulatory and construction-related issues at the government level, rather than leaving negotiations solely to private companies.

According to the sources, the government is conducting an internal review and could begin negotiations on establishing the channel as early as next month.

Trump first asked President Lee Jae Myung whether Korea could build 10 U.S. warships at the Group of 7 summit on June 16, then again when the two met at a NATO summit dinner on July 7. About a week later, at a defense innovation summit at the U.S. Army War College on July 15, he publicly floated the possibility of purchasing warships built overseas, specifically mentioning Korea.

“We have to build our Navy. […] We got to get it going. So we’re going to probably look at some of these companies that are coming in from South Korea and other places,” Trump said at the event.

“[Lee and Trump] share an understanding on mutually beneficial cooperation in shipbuilding,” the Blue House said the next day. “Specific cooperation measures will be worked out through working-level consultations.”

A Democratic Party official also addressed the request. 

“The U.S. side has made clear that it needs the warships right away. The timeline is tight,” they said. “U.S. leadership is keeping a close eye on the matter, especially since Trump has personally raised the issue several times. There’s a sense on our side, too, that we need to start consultations while the agenda is still alive.”

The United States has already begun assessing Korean shipyards’ capacity to build warships.

The U.S. Department of Defense and Navy recently sent requests for information to HD Hyundai and Hanwha Ocean, probing their design and construction capabilities for combat ships and refueling vessels. Officials from the defense subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations directly visited Korea’s three major shipbuilders on July 10 and 11, touring production sites for Aegis destroyers, frigates, submarines and logistics support ships.

Alongside such working-level review, political and diplomatic messaging highlighting the two countries’ shipbuilding cooperation has also continued.

Last Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to Korea Michelle Steel attended the opening ceremony of the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center, a platform to facilitate the $150 billion investment in the U.S. shipbuilding sector that Seoul has committed to as part of last year’s bilateral trade and investment deal.

“What we have discussed today is proof that our alliance is expanding into a new, incredibly important territory: the vitalization of the American industry, including […] shipbuilding,” she said in her first major public remarks since her Senate confirmation last month.

The talks over the 10 warships touch on the existing Make American Shipbuilding Great Again (MASGA) shipbuilding investment package, but the two have different focuses. MASGA, laid out in the joint fact sheet from the Korea-U.S. summit, centers on the $150 billion investment to modernize the United States’ shipyards and strengthen its shipbuilding industrial base, including maintenance and repair, work force training and supply chain expansion.

This warship issue, by contrast, revolves around building U.S. Navy vessels outside the United States and purchasing them directly. Within the Korean government, some expect that the matter will first be discussed through a separate dedicated channel, with any link to MASGA to be determined later in the course of negotiations.

If a separate consultation channel is set up, the first task will be to define the scope of construction handled by Korea and the method of final delivery. The primary obstacle to resolve is the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendments, which restrict the construction of U.S. Navy vessels and major components of their hulls and superstructures at foreign shipyards.

Depending on whether a complete vessel is built in Korea and delivered to the United States or only the hull or blocks are built in Korea, with final assembly and armament done in the United States, the issue would require different legal exemption methods. Options under discussion include Trump recognizing a national security exception or Congress creating a separate exemption.

The Korean government’s push to move quickly on warship cooperation also appears to reflect recent friction in the Korea-U.S. relationship.

As Seoul continues to investigate Coupang’s data breach — and having already imposed fines on the U.S.-listed e-commerce company — U.S. Republican Rep. Michael Baumgartner announced on Thursday that he had introduced the “No Racketeers on Our Shores Act,” which would restrict entry to foreign officials accused of discriminating against U.S. companies. Baumgartner directly cited Korean officials’ treatment of Coupang as an example.

The bill is considered unlikely to pass, but the Korean government is not taking the development lightly, as growing discontent in U.S. political circles has now taken the form of proposed legislation.

Korea and the United States held their first round of security talks in Seoul last month and had planned a follow-up round in Washington this month, but with the schedule still unconfirmed, the second round has effectively been pushed back to next month.

“If we proactively respond to something that the United States badly wants and create a cooperation agenda where both sides can produce results together, it could also help resolve the Korea-U.S. security talks and other pending issues, such as Coupang,” a source who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

BY YOON JI-WON [[email protected]]