In Washington DC
Leading global corporations from South Korea including Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG have set up local offices around Capitol Hill and are strengthening communications with the U.S. government and Congress by recruiting high-ranking former U.S. bureaucrats and other influential figures.
Last year, there was speculation about the aftereffects of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) when a high-ranking executive who had overseen overseas public affairs for a global manufacturer in Korea was replaced. The reason was said to be the insufficient information collected and delayed responses until the IRA was passed in the U.S. Congress in August of the previous year. In fact, aggressive U.S. legislation like the IRA and the CHIPS Act for the reorganization of the global supply chain has prompted Korean conglomerates to bolster their Washington information lines. Issues like the U.S.-China conflict, the war in Ukraine, and carbon regulations have become significant variables affecting Korean exports, increasing demand for local U.S. legislative and regulatory information. Particularly, the top four groups have been expanding their local lobbying organizations and increasing local office personnel, as the group heads regularly visit the U.S. to meet with the government and related personnel.
SK Group has expanded its local staff recruitment at its Washington office, and SK hynix, which had been under the same roof, has become independent with its own office since the beginning of this year. LG Group, which opened its first office in Washington last year, remodeled it into an LG affiliate product showroom concept last May. The move is seen as an expression of its intent to use the location as a base to raise LG’s presence in the U.S. government beyond just a public affairs office. Additionally, it has created a “war room” style policy monitoring space where it regularly checks on policy trends related to batteries.
In January of last year, LG began to strengthen its Washington public affairs organization by recruiting former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin as the co-head of the Washington office. Joseph Hagin, the director of the LG Washington office, is known as a White House veteran, having served four Republican presidents including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump for a total of 15 years. The LG Group office, which began with a seven-member team, has recently expanded to more than ten members with additional dispatches from LG Energy Solution, LG Electronics, and LG Chemical. Executive Vice President Im Byung-dae is serving as co-head.
Samsung Electronics has been strengthening communication with the U.S. government and Congress by recruiting former U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert as the head of the North American Public Affairs team in March last year. Half of the team, consisting of 15 people, is assigned to the Washington office.
This office serves as a communication space for political figures by hosting frequent political fundraisers for major congressional members, extending beyond its function as a simple office. Real-time updates on U.S. semiconductor export control policy trends are carried out here, and it also serves as a policy war room.
The head of Hyundai Motor Group’s office is Vice President Robert Hood, a former deputy attorney of the U.S. Legal Office, who joined the Hyundai Motor Group in 2020. This office includes four Korean expatriate staff among its ten members.
Other global companies and economic groups, such as POSCO and Hanwha, are also strengthening their Washington information networks. POSCO is considering strengthening its Washington office functions, including additional staff dispatches, to support the secondary battery material business led by Chairman Choi Jeong-woo. KOTRA will add a Ph.D.-level trade expert to its Washington Trade Center starting from August.
Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan of Hanwha Group, who oversees solar energy, energy, and defense businesses in the United States, is known to frequently visit Washington and meet with U.S. government personnel. Hanwha Group, which focuses on defense as its main business, has an office near the U.S. Department of Defense in the Pentagon. Vice Chairman Kim emphasizes the importance of information to the point of personally securing local information as an advisor to Sandbrook Capital, a U.S. solar investment company.
Such expansion of local public affairs organizations is leading to an increase in U.S. lobbying funds for Korean companies, with last year’s U.S. lobbying amount of the top four groups reaching an all-time high. According to OpenSecrets, a non-profit organization that compiles and analyzes companies’ U.S. lobbying public data, Samsung Electronics spent US$5.79 million last year, a 74% increase from 2020. SK Group’s lobbying funds increased from US$3.68 million in 2021 to US$5.27 million in 2022, and Hyundai Motor's increased from US$2.91 million to US$3.36 million. The main lobbying targets of these companies were the White House, Senate, House of Representatives, and Department of Commerce.