Industry minister heads to Washington for trade talks with US counterparts
During his three-day trip to the United States, Kim Jung-kwan, minister of trade, industry and energy, will meet with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who also serves as the chairman of the National Energy Council, according to his office.
"Given the significant impact that tariff negotiations could have on our economy, the government will thoroughly respond by carefully considering the sensitivities across different sectors," Kim was quoted as saying.
"Although it is currently difficult to predict the direction of US tariff measures, the government will engage in negotiations under close coordination between relevant ministries, with an aim to maximize national interest," he added. "We will make every effort to ensure that this negotiation becomes an opportunity to upgrade the Korea-US cooperation in the industrial and energy sectors, producing a positive-sum outcome for both countries."
The ministry of trade, industry and energy said Kim is expected to highlight the potential for increased cooperation between Seoul and Washington in many strategic industries, including energy, shipbuilding, semiconductors and batteries, while meeting his US counterparts this week.
Kim's US trip, the first of its kind since he took office Monday, comes amid South Korea's efforts to speed up tariff negotiations with the Trump administration before Washington begins imposing 25 percent reciprocal tariffs on Korean products on Aug. 1.
It also comes ahead of planned "2+2" trade talks involving South Korea's Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and their US counterparts -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer -- set to be held Friday (local time) in Washington.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is also arranging a visit to the US to meet with his counterpart, Marco Rubio, according to government officials.
National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac reportedly headed to Washington on Sunday to engage with his US counterparts in tariff negotiations.
South Korea has been negotiating with the US on a wide range of trade issues for months, seeking a full exemption or reduction of the planned 25 percent reciprocal tariffs for the country and sectoral tariffs imposed on all steel and automobile imports by the Trump administration.
Items on the negotiating table are said to include Seoul's import ban on American beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, proposed online platform regulations and restrictions on the export of high-precision map data. (Yonhap)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
an hour ago
- Korea Herald
Why some Koreans considered iPhone ‘half-baked' until it could replace their wallet and record calls
For more than a decade, a certain group of South Korean iPhone users passed around the same dry joke online: features like Apple Pay, call recording and transit card support would "only come to iPhone after unification with North Korea." The comparison wasn't literal. It was a way of saying these features felt so delayed that they belonged to the realm of the near impossible. But as of now, that punchline has expired. On July 22, Apple and T-money officially launched support for Korea's nationwide transit card system on iPhones and Apple Watches. It was the last major item on a long list of missing functions that had, for many, made the iPhone feel "half-baked." While there has been no official survey or data on how many iPhone users in Korea viewed the device as incomplete, the frustration was very real, and very specific for some. For years, Galaxy users could pay at almost any store using Samsung Pay's MST technology, swipe into buses and subways with built-in postpaid transit cards, and record phone calls natively. iPhone users, by contrast, had to make tradeoffs. 'I stayed with Galaxy because I had to,' said Kim Min-seok, a 38-year-old sales team manager at a mid-sized electronics firm in Seoul. 'Call recording isn't optional in my job. We handle client contracts over the phone all the time. If I missed something and had no record, I was the one to blame.' He recently switched to an iPhone 15 after his company approved the use of SK Telecom's 'A.' app, which enables call recording through a separate VoIP system. But the transition, he said, still feels like a compromise. 'It works, but it's not the same. On Galaxy, it's just there. You press a button and it's done.' This isn't a niche concern. In Korean business culture, verbal instructions and agreements often carry weight. As a result, call recording is not seen as invasive, but practical. Until recently, iPhones had no way to support it, due to Apple's global privacy policies and refusal to allow third-party access to its native call interface. 'I had friends who loved Apple, but they couldn't use it because of that one feature,' Kim said. 'It wasn't about price or loyalty. It was about function.' Other features were equally consequential. Samsung Pay, launched in 2015, quickly became the de facto standard for mobile payments in Korea. It supported virtually all credit and debit cards and worked on nearly every terminal, including those without NFC support. Apple Pay, which depends entirely on NFC, arrived in Korea only in March 2023 through Hyundai Card, nine years after its global debut. Even then, it launched with limited card compatibility and worked at only a fraction of merchants. According to Hyundai Card's PR director, Shim Hyun-jung, the rollout was 'technically successful but commercially narrow.' 'We knew Korean users had waited a long time,' she said. 'But the infrastructure wasn't ready, and the local financial ecosystem had to adjust to Apple's model.' Apple Pay's arrival spurred a surge in Hyundai Card signups, especially among younger users. But expansion stalled as other card issuers hesitated over Apple's transaction fee demands. The service remains exclusive to Hyundai Card to this day. Not all iPhone users saw these delays as a problem. 'I didn't think of my iPhone as lacking anything,' said J.Y., a 24-year-old university student in Seoul who asked to be identified by her initials only. 'I have not really considered Apple Pay as a basic smartphone feature. I already carry a wallet in my bag.' She has used iPhones since high school and says she prefers them for the design and the way they work with her iPad and MacBook. 'I don't feel like I'm missing out. I just like how it all fits together.' Her view reflects a different kind of user, perhaps more common, shaped more by Apple's ecosystem than by Korea's mobile-first infrastructure. Among Koreans in their 20s, especially women, iPhone usage is dominant. A 2024 Gallup Korea survey found that 75 percent of women in this age group used iPhones, compared to just 55 percent of men in their 20s. 'I think the idea of a 'half-baked iPhone' is mostly a guy thing,' J.Y. added, laughing. 'My female friends and I hardly consider features like Apple Pay or Samsung Pay as basic functions of a smartphone.' Still, for a subset of Apple fans in Korea, the missing features were deeply felt. Nowhere was this more visible than in Asamo (short for "iPhone User Group" in Korean), a massive online community hosted on Naver Cafe. With more than 2.3 million members, Asamo has long served as a hub for Apple users seeking workarounds, complaining about limitations and sharing news. 'We weren't trying to be negative. We just wanted our phones to function like they should in Korea,' said Jang Soo-min, a 31-year-old marketing professional and longtime Asamo moderator. 'Galaxy users could pay, ride the bus and record a call with no effort for such a long time. iPhone users couldn't. It felt like we were using the same device with half the functionality.' Jang points out that iPhone users often had to carry physical cards, memorize instructions during calls and explain to others why their phones couldn't do what was expected. 'It was embarrassing sometimes,' he said. Jang was one of the first to test Apple Pay on day one, and he set up T-money transit support the morning it launched on both his iPhone and Apple Watch. 'This is the Korean Apple ecosystem I've been waiting for,' he said. 'Not new. Just finally complete.' Still, even with the feature list filled out, Apple's market share in Korea remains limited. As of July 2025, Gallup Korea estimates Apple holds 24 percent of the domestic market, with Samsung commanding 72 percent. 'This isn't going to cause a mass switch from Galaxy to iPhone,' said Hwang Ah-yeon from the Korea Consumer Agency. 'The people who wanted iPhones already had them. This just makes their lives easier.' And for those who switched years ago, the arrival of long-promised features isn't cause for celebration. It's more like quiet vindication. 'We made do for years,' said Jang. 'Now it does work, though not perfectly. That might not sound exciting for every iPhone user in Korea, but for those of us waiting for it, it means everything.' mjh@
Korea Herald
an hour ago
- Korea Herald
NK leader's sister says not interested in any proposal from Seoul, won't sit down for dialogue
North Korea is not interested in any policy or proposal from South Korea and will not sit down with Seoul for talks, the powerful sister of state leader Kim Jong-un said Monday. Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the ruling party's central committee, made the remarks in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sought to resume dialogue with Pyongyang to ease military tension and improve inter-Korean ties. It marks the North's first official statement on the Lee administration, which took office last month. "Looking at around the past 50 days since Lee Jae Myung took office ... (he) is no different from his predecessor in blindly adhering to the South Korea-US alliance and pursuing confrontation with us," Kim said. No matter how hard the Lee government tries to draw North Korea's attention, the North's stance toward the South will not change, she said. "I make it clear once again that we are not interested in any policy or proposal put forward by Seoul, and there will be no chance of us sitting down with South Korea for any discussions," she noted. Kim pointed to a proposal in South Korea to normalize its unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs, saying the ministry should be dissolved because the two Koreas are separate countries, and accused Seoul of being "possessed" by the specter of "unification by absorption." She also dismissed Seoul's recent suspension of spy agency-operated radio and television broadcasts targeting North Korea as something that "does not deserve any appreciation." "There would be no greater misunderstanding if South Korea expected to overturn the consequences of its own making with a few sentimental words now, after having declared (North Korea) its main enemy and pursued extreme confrontation in the last," Kim noted. She also referred to proposals in South Korea to invite Kim Jong-un to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju in October, calling them a "ridiculous delusion." (Yonhap)
Korea Herald
5 hours ago
- Korea Herald
[Editorial] Beef and barriers
Trade tensions rise over beef and investments, with economic growth hanging in the balance As the Aug. 1 deadline for US reciprocal tariffs approaches, South Korea faces intensifying pressure to make politically sensitive trade concessions. Nowhere is this tension more visible than in the dispute over American beef. On July 24, US President Donald Trump took to social media to praise Australia's decision to open its beef market — including imports of cattle over 30 months old — and warned that countries refusing 'magnificent' US beef were 'on notice.' Among major US trade partners, South Korea now stands alone in maintaining such restrictions. What's at stake is more than beef. South Korea is racing to avert the imposition of 25 percent reciprocal tariffs on a range of exports. These duties would hit at a precarious moment for its manufacturing base, already strained by stagnant domestic demand and mounting global uncertainty. In recent talks in Washington and New York, South Korean officials proposed a revised investment package totaling over $100 billion and offered limited concessions on rice and beef — areas long deemed untouchable. Yet US negotiators, emboldened by recent deals with Japan and the UK, are demanding more. The comparison with Japan has become particularly thorny. Tokyo secured a reduction in reciprocal tariffs to 15 percent in exchange for a $550 billion investment commitment and broader market access for US agricultural and auto exports. South Korea's proposed investment, though substantial, remains well short of that mark. More troubling, if South Korean exports are hit with 25 percent tariffs while Japan's face only 15 percent, Korean manufacturers would suffer an immediate and damaging competitiveness gap. Recent earnings reports from Hyundai and Kia already show steep profit declines, driven in part by early US tariffs on automobiles. Extending such disadvantages across additional sectors could deepen South Korea's growth malaise and leave long-term economic scars. The options are narrowing, but not yet exhausted. Seoul has signaled a more flexible posture, suggesting it may allow partial openings of the beef market and step back from earlier prohibitions. Unlike Japan's investment-heavy deal, however, South Korea is positioning its offer around industrial cooperation, particularly in shipbuilding — a sector President Trump has prioritized for revival. With China expanding its maritime footprint, Washington may be receptive to deeper strategic ties with Seoul in shipbuilding, semiconductors and batteries. South Korea has framed these offers not merely as trade-offs, but as building blocks of a broader manufacturing alliance aligned with US supply chain objectives. Still, the outlook remains uncertain. Trump and key trade officials are now in Europe for parallel negotiations, leaving only July 30 and 31 as viable windows for a final agreement. Absent a breakthrough, the tariffs will take effect on Aug. 1. Analysts warn that if the US proceeds with a 25 percent tariff, South Korea's real gross domestic product could decline by as much as 0.4 percent, even under a gradual adjustment scenario. Medium-sized exporters would be hit hardest, lacking the scale to shift production or absorb the cost shock. South Korea's negotiators must weigh the costs of limited market concessions against the broader fallout of failure. While agricultural sensitivities are real, clinging to legacy protections may imperil national economic interests. Other countries have accepted sectoral compromises in return for tariff relief and market stability. South Korea must now craft a tailored approach that secures similar benefits without replicating others' terms. Avoiding a blanket concession is essential, as is avoiding blanket resistance. If Seoul cannot match Tokyo's dollar commitments, it must compensate with industrial leverage, strategic alignment and diplomatic finesse. These final days of negotiation will test its ability to safeguard the economic base while sustaining political and public consensus at home. Never has it been clearer that small concessions now could prevent far greater losses later.
