[Reading Science] The US-Korea Science and Technology Alliance That Remained Mere Talk

"On the occasion of the U.S. visit, a leap toward the Korea-U.S. science and technology alliance." This is the official science and technology diplomatic achievement announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 4th, regarding the Korea-U.S. summit held last month in Washington, U.S. With President Yoon Seok-yeol's state visit to the U.S. as an opportunity, the solidarity between the two countries in all fields of advanced technology has expanded, and based on this, South Korea has been able to solidify its position as a global technology powerhouse.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S. April 25, 2023. Photo by Yonhap News/Reuters

Is that really the case? Through this summit, we failed to properly resolve the most urgent issues in the field of science and technology. We failed to address the ‘poisonous clauses’ in the U.S. government's semiconductor support law, which pose a high risk of losing South Korea’s core semiconductor technology. Korean semiconductor companies that establish factories in the U.S. will have to disclose their production sites and provide trade secrets to receive subsidies from the U.S. government. The semiconductor manufacturing know-how and technology that Korean companies have built up over the past 30 years could be fully exposed. For companies and engineers who have invested enormous amounts of money and sweat into semiconductor technology development, this is maddening. How is this different from China demanding technology sharing from foreign companies investing in their country, earning the nickname ‘thief economy (Shanzhai, 山寨)’?

Along with the electric vehicle subsidy issue under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), expectations to resolve or at least find a clue to this issue were dashed at the Korea-U.S. summit. Even if the reason it was not discussed at the summit table is that it is a legislative matter under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress, it is the same. President Yoon should have at least used one-tenth of the time he spent singing about ‘freedom’ in his speech to the U.S. Congress to appeal for resolving this issue, but he did not.

In other fields, there is an evaluation that we were played with ‘poor treatment’ and a feast of words. On the 25th of last month, Minister Lee Jong-ho of the Ministry of Science and ICT accompanied President Yoon during his visit to NASA and announced a joint statement on space exploration and scientific cooperation. However, while Minister Lee, a cabinet member of Korea, signed the statement, the U.S. side was represented not by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson but by Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. Considering that NASA can be regarded as a vice-ministerial level agency by Korean standards, this low-level representation has been called ‘poor treatment.’

How about Japan? During Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to the U.S. in January, the U.S.-Japan space exploration cooperation agreement was signed directly by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. Not only was the level of signatories different, but the content also showed a significant difference. The U.S. and Japan agreed to include a Japanese astronaut in the lunar landing exploration planned for the late 2020s, demonstrating a higher level of cooperation. Korea-U.S. space cooperation is still at a rudimentary level of "let’s find things to do in the future." The same applies to the science and technology field. Minister Lee signed the ‘Korea-U.S. Joint Statement on Quantum Information Science and Technology Cooperation’ with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director. However, it was more of a "let’s do well going forward" intention, and we did not achieve the expected results from the U.S., the ‘quantum superpower,’ in terms of substantial research and personnel exchange.

This Korea-U.S. summit especially made us realize the reality that ‘diplomacy is a comprehensive reflection of national power’ in the field of science and technology. It clearly showed that if we are not properly prepared and lack national support, there is nothing to gain from international diplomacy. In particular, South Korea, which has fallen behind in space development and quantum science technology and has been negligent in investment, must understand the meaning of the U.S.’s poor treatment. The simple reality is that a deal is only possible if we have ‘goods’ to trade in our hands.

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