US Asks South Korea for Response on Joining 'Chip 4 Alliance' by End of August

Presidential Office "Government Has Not Yet Finalized Position"

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan, New York = Special Correspondent Jo Seulgina] The U.S. government has requested that our government inform them by the end of August whether it will participate in the so-called 'Chip 4 Alliance (Semiconductor Alliance)' being promoted to address semiconductor supply chain issues.

According to diplomatic sources on the 13th (local time), the U.S. plans to hold the first working-level meeting of the Chip 4 Alliance by the end of August and has reportedly asked the South Korean government to notify them of its attendance by then.

The Chip 4 Alliance is a concept proposed by the U.S. government to expand and strengthen semiconductor cooperation among four countries: the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. The official name used by the U.S. government is the 'East Asia Semiconductor Supply Chain Network,' but the media refers to it as the Chip 4 Alliance (English abbreviation: Fab4).

The U.S. government announced this policy around March and has been exchanging opinions with related countries since then. It is known that the U.S. plans to hold the first working-level meeting around the end of August. The Chip 4 Alliance is a semiconductor supply chain cooperation system based on the fact that the U.S. has strengths in system semiconductor design, while South Korea and Taiwan are semiconductor manufacturing powerhouses.

Currently, Japan and Taiwan have responded positively to attending the meeting, but South Korea has not yet replied regarding its attendance. This appears to be related to the fact that Taiwan, which China does not recognize as a country, is included as a participant, coinciding with the strengthening of U.S. measures against China. China is a major semiconductor export market for South Korea, and Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix operate factories there.

The South Korean government is reportedly carefully reviewing whether to attend. A senior official from the Presidential Office said, "As far as I know, there is no consolidated position at the government level yet."

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