Jeong Eui-yong "US Vaccine Support Unrelated to ROK-US Joint Military Exercises" (Comprehensive)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong stated on the 28th that "the U.S. government's COVID-19 vaccine support and the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises are unrelated."

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong attended the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee plenary meeting held at the National Assembly on the 28th, reporting on the content and outcomes of the South Korea-US summit./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Minister Chung appeared at the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee plenary session that morning and responded to a question from Kim Seok-ki, a member of the People Power Party, who asked, "Isn't the U.S. providing vaccines because our government said it would not conduct the South Korea-U.S. exercises due to COVID-19?" by saying, "The vaccine supply is not because of the South Korea-U.S. exercises," and added, "It is a separate issue."

Minister Chung further emphasized, "The scale and method of the (South Korea-U.S.) exercises will be decided through consultations between the military authorities of both countries."

Regarding criticism that only 550,000 doses of vaccines were received in return for South Korean companies' $44 trillion investment in the U.S., he rebutted, saying, "That is an evaluation that does not understand the overall achievements of the visit to the U.S."

Minister Chung added, "Corporate investments are fundamentally based on commercial interests and are decided by the companies themselves," and "Our companies have the advantage of securing the U.S. market and advancing technology through investments in the U.S., and the U.S. has strengthened its production base by receiving investments."

Concerning the South Korea-U.S. vaccine partnership, he said, "I understand that there is an agreement between our companies and U.S. companies contracted for consignment production to prioritize supplying a significant portion of domestically produced quantities to the domestic market."

Regarding the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee marking Dokdo as Japanese territory on its website map, Minister Chung said, "We will respond as strongly as possible."

In response to a question from Kim Young-joo of the Democratic Party about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' countermeasures on this issue, he said, "We have already strongly protested to the Japanese side," and added, "We will not tolerate Japan's wrongful actions regarding Dokdo."

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