US President Joe Biden landed in South Korea on Friday for his first trip to Asia as president, a tour looming over a possible North Korean nuclear test.
The president’s Air Force One plane landed in the afternoon at Osan Air Base near Seoul. The 79-year-old Democratic leader immediately went to a semiconductor factory of South Korean giant Samsung in Pyeongtaek, south of the capital, which he visited with his new South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-Yeol, who arrived in power in early May.
The U.S.-South Korea alliance is « a pillar of peace, stability and prosperity » in the world, Biden said in his first remarks after his arrival.
The choice of the Samsung factory as the first stop on its journey is not trivial: Semiconductors – the microchips essential to most modern devices, from phones to cars and high-tech weapons – are at the heart of a slowdown global supply chain that threatens to disrupt economic recovery from the pandemic.
South Korea accounts for around 70% of the world’s production of these components, recalled Mr. Yoon. According to him, Mr. Biden’s visit could help the two allies forge a new « economic and security alliance based on advanced technology and supply chain cooperation ».
« Semiconductors are now akin to strategic goods, » Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP, and the United States is trying to rebuild its national industry. Biden « needs Samsung’s collaboration on this, » he added.
After Seoul, Mr. Biden will travel to Tokyo on Sunday where he will participate in a meeting of the Quad, this diplomatic format which he is keen to relaunch and which brings together the United States, Japan, India and Australia.
– Taiwan and North Korea –
With this tour of its two great allies in East Asia, the United States wants to « affirm the image of what the world can be if the democracies and open societies of the world come together to dictate the rules of the game » , around American « leadership », said national security adviser Jake Sullivan, during the flight aboard Air Force One.
« We think this message will be heard in Beijing. But it’s not a negative message and it’s not aimed at one country, » Sullivan said.
China, and Taiwan, will nevertheless be in everyone’s mind.
Security issues were not high on Friday’s agenda, however. The White House has clarified that the American president will not go to the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas – where Donald Trump met in 2019 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for a spectacular meeting but which did not take place. changed the trajectory of the regime.
– Threat of nuclear test –
The Biden government has repeatedly, unsuccessfully, said it was ready to talk to North Korea, despite the latter having stepped up missile launches since the start of the year.
Seoul and Washington expect Pyongyang to resume nuclear testing imminently, after conducting six between 2006 and 2017.
According to US intelligence, there is a « real possibility » that North Korea could choose to stage a « provocation » during Mr Biden’s stay in the South, his administration said before he left Washington.
That could mean « new missile testing, long-range missile testing, or nuclear testing, or both, » before, during, or after Biden’s tour of the region, Sullivan said.
And this as the country faces a worsening coronavirus epidemic, with the number of cases now exceeding 1.7 million according to the official press.
A North Korean nuclear test would cause « adjustments to the posture of our armed forces in the region », also declared Jake Sullivan.
But he denied that such an event would be seen as a setback to Joe Biden’s diplomacy. « It would underscore one of the main messages we’re sending on this trip, which is that the United States is standing up for our allies and partners. »
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