South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was given the red carpet this week as Washington and Seoul celebrate the 70th anniversary of their alliance. Yoon

‘s

week

–

long route includes a high-profile summit with President Biden, a glittering state banquet

pay tribute to

reserved only for U.S. closest allies and a joint address to Congress.

But beneath the pomp and circumstance, thorny issues are at stake.

South Korean companies are concerned about the fallout from President Biden’s efforts to boost US manufacturing and limit the growth of China’s high-tech sector.

And earlier this year a leak of classified Pentagon documents

revealed details of US espionage against South Korea

which embarrasses both countries and gives Yoon political headaches

At home

.

Both countries also hope to counter North Korea’s aggressive missile tests

and manage China’s growing military and economic influence in Northeast Asia.

The two leaders will unveil a new agreement on Wednesday to bolster comprehensive deterrence,

the idea that the US will or the US guarantee

according to senior government officials, to defend its allies with its full military capabilities, including nuclear, in response to rising threats from North Korea. The “Washington Declaration” will give South Korea more insight and input into US military planning in exchange for Seoul’s commitment not to develop its own nuclear weapons, officials said.

The US will also send a ballistic missile submarine to South Korea for the first time since the 1980s as a visible demonstration of US military prowess, officials said. The two leaders are expected to roll out a range of other initiatives in cybersecurity, economic investment and other areas of cooperation to further solidify the alliance

in presence of

North Korea’s record number of nuclear missile tests this year.

moved to Yoon’s

visit is a “springboard to connect Korea to this wider web of alliance cooperation relations in the region, whether we are talking about security, economic security issues…and interacting with other stakeholders in the region, including Southeast Asian countries and islands in the Pacific,” said Nicholas Szechenyi, deputy director for Asia at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Yoon, a conservative politician who took office last year, has made strengthening military and diplomatic ties with the US a core focus of his foreign policy. He resumed joint military exercises with the United States, coordinated with the US to reduce reliance on China for global supply chains and, most importantly, thawed relations with Japan despite a bitter historic dispute over Korean forced labor during Tokyo’s colonial rule, a decision that caused domestic backlash. .

Biden has that too

tried to be chased the coast

to increase US influence in the Indo-Pacific region as Washington has intensified

are

economic confrontation with China.

Yoon’s meeting takes place a week early

Biden wants host

hosts

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the White House next week and will travel to Japan for the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima

on May 19-21.

While North Korea is a priority for the alliance, it is a perpetual issue that both countries agree on

the approach

according to Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The text of it is clearly about North Korea, but the subtext is China,” Cha said.

Biden has sought to address concerns among South Korean companies that they will not qualify for subsidies under his Inflation Reduction Act, which offers tax credits for electric vehicles that are assembled in North America or contain major components that are sourced domestically .

South Korean companies are currently not eligible.

Before Yoon arrived at the White House, General Motors and South Korea’s Hyundai announced billions in new investments to produce battery cells for electric vehicles in the US with South Korean battery manufacturers.

But Biden will have to resolve frictions over the $50 billion CHIPS and Science Act.

the law

gives federal funds to semiconductor manufacturers who agree to limit advanced chip production in China

in the coming

10 years. US export controls on computer chip equipment designed to stifle China’s access to the advanced technology have also ranked Seoul. Japan and the Netherlands have imposed similar restrictions.

South Korean companies Samsung and SK Hynix were granted a one-year exemption from the export ban, but both countries will have to negotiate a solution when it expires in October.

“South Korea relies heavily on its semiconductor industry as part of its broader economic strength, and that industry is heavily invested in China,” said Frank Aum, an expert on Northeast Asia at the US Institute of Peace.

Yoon is under pressure to return from his visit to the White House with further assurances of Washington’s commitment to trade deals and defense against nuclear-armed Pyongyang as he tries to smooth over relations following the leak of classified documents.

The leaked intelligence showed that top South Korean officials were concerned

sale

ammunition

South Korea sold

to the US would end in Ukraine, in violation of the country’s policy of not providing lethal aid to countries in conflict. The revelation sparked criticism at home, but White House officials have brushed off any tensions caused by the split.

Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the current relationship with Seoul should be “an alliance powered by chips, batteries and clean technology,” but that there are “lingering” issues the make ties more difficult, including with the South. The reluctance of the Korean public to get involved with Ukraine and recently leaked documents from the US Pentagon.

And so it’s kind of ironic because I think the alliance is probably at the highest point it’s been, maybe in the [70-year] history of the alliance in terms of intensity and depth of coordination and … scope,” Snyder said.

Yoon opened the six-day visit Tuesday by visiting a NASA facility with Vice President Kamala Harris and later laying a wreath at the Korean War Memorial with his wife, Kim Keon Hee, and Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

He also met with Ted Sarando, co-CEO of Netflix, who announced that the streaming giant would invest $2.5 billion in Korean entertainment over the next four years. Yoon is expected to meet other studio executives from Disney, Sony Pictures and others during the film

Association Assn.

headquarters in Washington on Thursday.

“It’s a new frontier for the alliance that goes beyond the kind of traditional security and free trade components of the relationship,” Cha said.