President Joe Biden met with Korea’s new President Yoon Suk-yeol on the first leg of a four-day visit to South Korea and Japan, a trip whose overriding strategic purpose is to contain China and lay the groundwork for coming economic and other confrontation with that nation of 1.4 billion people.
In South Korea, part of Biden’s mission was to strengthen specific “supply chains” with an eye to decoupling with China. The two presidents pledged to deepen and broaden cooperation on critical and emerging technologies, including semiconductors, eco-friendly electric vehicle batteries, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, biotechnology and autonomous robotics, as well as cyber security. Yoon and Biden also agreed to strengthen partnerships in areas such as defense sector supply chain, joint development and manufacturing.
