Seoul, Aug 19 (IANS) – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will hold a high-level meeting on Tuesday with the heads of the country’s leading conglomerates, ahead of his planned summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington next week, the presidential office said.
Executives from key industries — including semiconductors, shipbuilding, automobiles, defence, biotechnology, and energy — are expected to attend, as these sectors will form the core of discussions on industrial cooperation during Lee’s Aug. 25 summit with Trump, Yonhap news agency reported.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won — who also heads the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) — will join the meeting. Other attendees include Korean Air CEO Cho Won-tae, Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Jang Jae-hoon, Doosan Enerbility Chairman Park Gee-won, and Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin.
The Washington visit will be Lee’s first summit with Trump and will also include a two-day stopover in Tokyo for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
The trip comes on the heels of a revised trade deal between Seoul and Washington that cut planned US tariffs from 25 percent to 15 percent in exchange for South Korea’s pledge of $350 billion in investment and $100 billion in US energy purchases. Of the pledged investment, $150 billion will go toward Seoul’s shipbuilding initiative, dubbed “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again” (MASGA).
Observers say Trump may be seeking a breakthrough with Lee after his high-profile talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week ended without a concrete deal.
Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), noted in a podcast: “The US president probably wants a success next week. He doesn’t like failure to be followed by failure. Koreans have already put a lot on the table, with $350 billion plus the shipbuilding initiative, and that may bode well for the meeting.”
