Editorials
Investment should help restore strained Korea-U.S. ties
Seoul and Washington must turn strategic investment commitments into trust and concrete progress on shared security priorities.
President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump hold a summit at a hotel in New York on Sept. 22, local time, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
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President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump met in New York on Tuesday, welcoming progress in South Korea’s strategic investment projects in the United States and agreeing to continue follow-up measures. They also agreed to continue consultations on security issues, including nuclear-powered submarines and the transfer of wartime operational control, while reaffirming their willingness to pursue dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
The summit had not even been confirmed when Lee arrived in New York. That the meeting came together only after negotiations over South Korean investment in the United States advanced rapidly illustrates the uneasy state of the alliance.
South Korea’s strategic investment will begin with the $22.3 billion Encinal combined-cycle gas power plant in Texas, followed by plans involving eight nuclear reactors and the Alaska liquefied natural gas project. If these projects proceed as planned, implementation of the $200 billion U.S. strategic investment commitment agreed last year will finally get on track. The priority now is to carry out these projects without disruption so both countries can see tangible returns and results.
The negotiations have hardly been smooth. As Lee said at a recent press conference, Seoul clashed with Washington while insisting on “commercial viability.” As talks stalled, the Coupang issue developed into a trade dispute, while security matters including U.S. requests for South Korean contributions concerning the Strait of Hormuz and South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises became intertwined with the negotiations. South Korean Ambassador to the United States Kang Kyung-wha even returned to Seoul amid tensions to convey Washington’s dissatisfaction with delays in the investment process. With trade and investment entangled with security issues, bilateral relations entered an unusually strained period.
The government should therefore use the investment agreement to dispel accumulated distrust and put South Korea-U.S. relations back on a stable footing. Concrete advances should follow on security issues such as nuclear-powered submarines, spent nuclear fuel reprocessing and the transfer of wartime operational control.
Not every aspect of the South Korea-U.S. alliance can be measured by immediate financial returns. Seoul should continue demanding commercial viability from its U.S. investments while also weighing the longer-term strategic benefits that can come from a solid alliance.
Firm mutual trust between the two governments is also indispensable if U.S.-North Korea dialogue resumes. South Korea cannot afford to become merely an intermediary in negotiations over the Korean Peninsula. It must remain actively involved as a direct party to issues affecting its security and future. Restoring trust with Washington through credible implementation of the investment agreement should be the starting point.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
