South Korean Acting President: "Strengthening the Korea-US Alliance is a Wise Tariff Solution"

Han Duck-soo, Acting President and Prime Minister, argued that the issue of the United States' reciprocal tariffs should be resolved through strengthening the alliance.

Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is speaking at the Cabinet meeting held at the Government Seoul Office. Photo by Yonhap News

On the 9th, Han posted on social media (SNS), stating, "While some countries respond harshly with retaliatory tariffs, elevating the Korea-US alliance to a security and economic alliance is a wiser solution." He added, "In game theory, if individual players repeatedly make selfish choices, they may seem to benefit in the short term, but ultimately everyone tends to suffer."

He continued, "The best way to solve the problem is to calmly communicate with the other party and persistently seek a path that guarantees mutual benefits," and said, "Some say 'global free trade is dead,' but I do not think so."

Han said, "My CNN interview and the phone call with President Donald Trump overlapped, so I ate kimbap with officials in the office while reviewing and preparing our points. Fortunately, both the interview and the summit call received positive responses from the other side," adding, "I will devote all my efforts to the long and difficult negotiations ahead."

Han conducted an interview with CNN from 4 p.m. the previous day, followed by a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump for about 30 minutes starting at 9 p.m.

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