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Print edition National Politics Seoul Education Social Affairs Courts and Law Foreign Affairs Military North Korea Diplomatic Circuit Health National Korea, Japan discuss chip, AI cooperation in economic security dialogue
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Ji Da-gyum For over a decade, I’ve navigated the complexities of North Korean affairs, security, and foreign policy from both Seoul and Washington, D.C. As the National Desk Political Team Lead, I track the pulse of geopolitics, closely following developments from the Unification Ministry and the Foreign Ministry. My mornings start with Rodong Sinmun—North Korea’s state mouthpiece—before diving into the day’s headlines from Seoul and Washington.
South Korea and Japan held high-level economic security dialogue to discuss closer cooperation in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and supply chains, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
Kim Sung-youl, presidential secretary for economic security, and Takeshi Soda, Cabinet councilor at Japan’s National Security Secretariat, led their respective delegations at the fifth Korea-Japan Economic Security Dialogue in Tokyo on Tuesday.
“At the meeting, Korea and Japan assessed the economic security environment and shared their respective economic security policies to enhance mutual understanding,” Cheong Wa Dae said in a press statement.
“They also exchanged views and explored ways to cooperate on pending economic security issues, including fostering and protecting advanced technologies such as AI, semiconductors and quantum technologies, as well as stabilizing supply chains for energy and critical minerals.”
The dialogue comes as Seoul and Tokyo seek to deepen economic security cooperation amid intensifying competition between US and over advanced technologies and a global push to secure critical supply chains.
Semiconductors have emerged as one of the most tangible areas for cooperation, given the complementary strengths of the two countries’ industries.
Japan has deep capabilities in semiconductor materials, components and manufacturing equipment, as well as advanced packaging, while South Korea is home to global memory chip leaders Samsung Electronics and SK hynix and has significant foundry capacity.
Samsung Electronics, for instance, is building its Advanced Package Lab in Yokohama, near Tokyo, as a research and development hub for next-generation semiconductor packaging technologies.
The dialogue also came a day after SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said SK hynix was “studying” the feasibility of expanding memory chip production in Japan, including through a potential joint venture, after attending a meeting between the South Korean and Japanese chambers of commerce in Sendai.
On the background of the meeting, Cheong Wa Dae explained, “The economic security dialogue was held as a follow-up to the agreement between the two leaders to strengthen communication and substantive cooperation in the field of economic security.”
President Lee Jae Myung and then-Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba agreed on the need for closer strategic communication in response to changes in the regional strategic environment and the evolving global economic and trade order in a joint press statement issued after their summit on Aug. 23, 2025.
The fourth economic security dialogue was held in Seoul the following month.
The two governments agreed to hold the sixth economic security dialogue next year, Cheong Wa Dae added.
The bilateral economic security dialogue was initially launched in Seoul in May 2023 following an agreement between then-President Yoon Suk Yeol and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at their summit in Tokyo two months earlier.
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