'Climate Change Response' in Unison... but 'Vaccine' Discussion Remains Uncertain

Ahead of Summit, Moon Attends US Climate Summit
Differences Between South Korea and US on Vaccines, North Korea Nuclear Issues

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The agenda items expected to be discussed at the late May South Korea-U.S. summit, such as North Korea-U.S. relations and the improvement of South Korea-Japan relations, are mostly areas with significant differences in opinion between the two countries. In particular, the 'vaccine swap,' which is an agenda item necessary only for South Korea, is already uncertain whether it will even be brought to the discussion table, as the U.S. side has stated a 'lack of capacity.'

President Moon Jae-in recently urged the 'resumption of North Korea-U.S. dialogue,' 'succession of the Singapore agreement,' and 'cooperation with China' in an interview with The New York Times, but the U.S. side has not given any significant response. Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration prefers a 'bottom-up' approach, and North Korea is responding with a 'strong-for-strong, preemptive-for-preemptive' principle, so there is no sign of progress in North Korea-U.S. dialogue.

Regarding the vaccine agenda, Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong publicly announced the promotion of the 'vaccine swap' on the 20th, but U.S. President Joe Biden stated on the 21st (local time) that "there is not enough vaccine to send overseas," making the possibility of realization very low.

However, there is also a prospect that the U.S. will eventually share vaccines with South Korea in the context of COVID-19 cooperation. Shin Beom-chul, head of the Foreign and Security Center at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, said, "South Korea is an important ally of the U.S., and since Minister Chung publicly mentioned the 'vaccine swap,' some discussions must be underway," adding, "Even if South Korea does not join the QUAD as the U.S. wants, vaccine sharing could be possible by leveraging other levers such as semiconductors, advanced technology, and strengthening South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation."

There are also some clues to predict the South Korea-U.S. summit results somewhat positively. This refers to the situation where the South Korea-U.S. alliance is solidified in non-military aspects by voicing a unified stance on climate change response, increasing the likelihood of closely discussing climate change response agenda items at the summit.

On the 22nd, President Moon attended the first session of the climate summit led by President Biden via video conference and announced measures to realize the '2050 carbon neutrality' vision, including ▲ further raising the 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) ▲ stopping public financial support for new overseas coal power plants. In contrast to major greenhouse gas emitters such as China, Russia, and India, which only reaffirmed their existing positions, President Moon's announcement to further raise the NDC is interpreted as lending support to the Biden administration's climate change response efforts.

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