South Korea and United States deepen ties on investment act and security pacts

In Washington, D.C., on January 23, South Korea’s Prime Minister Kim Min-seok met with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at the White House, officials said. It was the pair’s second face-to-face in roughly a month and a half, following their January meeting in the same venue.

The two reaffirmed their push to implement the Korea-U.S. “Special Act on Investment” and to accelerate the execution of the joint explanatory materials that accompany it. They also emphasized advancing security-related accords, including those tied to nuclear-powered submarines, civilian nuclear power, and shipbuilding, and agreed to move quickly on those commitments.

Kim told Vance that the Special Act on Investment recently passed in Korea’s National Assembly signaled Seoul’s strong commitment to honoring investment-related agreements with the United States. He said the law would, in time, support U.S. manufacturing growth and job creation and lay a broader foundation for the Korea-U.S. relationship.

Vance welcomed the new legal framework for advancing investment commitments and urged continued close communication on investment issues between the two governments. The two officials also discussed cooperation in critical minerals and Korea’s responsive actions to U.S. concerns about export controls and other non-tariff barriers.

The talks touched on other U.S. concerns previously raised by Vance, including topics such as Coupang, a major Korean e-commerce firm, and religious issues; Seoul said those matters have since been managed stably. Both sides stressed continued dialogue on these and other issues.

North Korea’s denuclearization talks and the broader security dynamic on the peninsula also featured in the discussion, with both sides reaffirming that diplomacy remains an option and that close bilateral communication should continue.

Separately, the U.S. Trade Representative announced the day before that Washington had begun Section 301 investigations against 15 countries and the European Union, including South Korea. Section 301 probes can lead to tariffs or other trade measures if the U.S. finds unfair practices affecting American firms. Observers see the move as an early step in rebalancing trade relations.

The Korean side described the meeting as strengthening personal trust between Prime Minister Kim and Vice President Vance and said it would boost overall cooperation on a broad range of bilateral issues, from economic and security ties to supply chains and regulatory coordination.