What South Korea’s Election Means for Its Technology Alliance With the United States – The Diplomat

Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy | East Asia

Following months of bitter contest, South Koreans on Wednesday narrowly elected Yoon Suk-yeol, the candidate from the conservative Individuals Energy Get together, because the nation’s subsequent president. Dealing with an unsure financial outlook and rising political polarization, the stakes of the election had been momentous, with some evaluating the ferocity of the marketing campaign to the favored Korean horror-survival present “Squid Sport.” Specifically, Yoon got here below fireplace for his stance towards feminism, which resulted in him successful simply 34 p.c of the vote from girls of their 20s.

By way of overseas coverage, Yoon is anticipated to take a extra hawkish method to China, and to pursue a renewed, strengthened alliance with the US. Underneath Yoon’s presidency, for instance, the US is more likely to resume bomber flights and provider strike group deployments to the Korean Peninsula, which have been on pause since 2018. However Yoon’s election additionally presents alternatives to strengthen the South Korea-U.S. relationship past conventional safety considerations. One among these is the promotion and safety of essential and rising applied sciences.

First, the Yoon administration can construct on the work of its predecessor to strengthen South Korea-U.S. promotion of rising applied sciences. The Might 2021 summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden established a framework below which the US and South Korea can coordinate on high-technology points, however will probably be as much as Yoon, who takes workplace in Might, to place phrases into motion. In synthetic intelligence, for instance, the US and South Korea have each acknowledged the mutual advantage of exchanging scientific expertise however have but to determine a proper mechanism for doing so. Each nations additionally agreed to collaborate when screening outbound know-how investments, however such screening mechanisms are nonetheless below negotiation in the US and are usually not anticipated to crystallize till later this 12 months.

The Yoon administration additionally has ample room to deal with new know-how challenges not lined by the Moon-Biden settlement. For instance, South Korea will probably be an integral companion because the Biden administration promotes its new Indo-Pacific Financial Framework for digital commerce. The Blue Home has embraced metaverse content material and “Web3” purposes on the similar time it has regulated cryptocurrency transactions, and Yoon has pledged to boost the edge for a crypto capital beneficial properties tax, prompting a extra permissive funding atmosphere. The USA and South Korea may coordinate to deal with unanticipated threats and mitigate provide chain dangers. In biotechnology, for instance, South Korean gene sequencing firms may function trusted options to Chinese language counterparts like BGI, which have fueled China’s army modernization and contributed to human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Past its scientific prowess, South Korea has cultivated vital comfortable energy, and should provide a counterweight to China’s ballooning affect in worldwide standards-setting our bodies just like the Worldwide Telecommunications Union and Third-Era Partnership Challenge. The Korea Analysis Institute of Requirements and Science (KRISS) has already proposed technical requirements that might increase the event of quantum info science. As treaty allies and like-minded democracies, the US and South Korea ought to proceed working carefully to craft guidelines of the street for digital and rising applied sciences.

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Lastly, Yoon’s election bodes nicely for U.S. and South Korean prospects to withstand the shared menace of Chinese language financial coercion. For the reason that 2017 “THAAD incident,” the Moon administration had been hesitant to coordinate with the US on points past conventional safety considerations, for worry of prompting financial reprisal from China, its largest buying and selling companion. Yoon, against this, has promised to “reset” the China-South Korea relationship, and in late February even dedicated to buying a further THAAD battery. Writing in Overseas Affairs final month, Yoon decried what he considered as “timidity” by the Moon administration and “overly accommodating gestures meant to placate China.” He additionally opened the door to a trilateral safety partnership with the US and Japan.

Nonetheless, questions stay about how far Yoon’s administration might swing towards countering threats from China. For instance, though the Moon administration had introduced that South Korea would be part of the worldwide coalition of nations coordinating to impose sanctions and limit know-how exports to Russia and Belarus, it’s not clear whether or not Yoon is keen to increase restrictions to Chinese language firms more likely to violate these insurance policies, as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo promised earlier this week.

If carried out, Yoon’s marketing campaign guarantees regarding the US and China would signify a daring about-face in South Korean overseas coverage. The brand new path charted by his administration may create vital room for Seoul and Washington to maneuver on different points, comparable to provide chain resilience and export controls, but in addition has the potential to ask new dangers. However it doesn’t matter what challenges might take a look at the South Korea-U.S. alliance throughout Yoon’s administration, know-how will stay one fruitful space for cooperation between Washington and Seoul, and should function a launchpad for tighter financial integration within the Indo-Pacific.