Seoul Remains Uncommitted
The U.S. and South Korean governments had an economic council meeting on Oct. 14 to discuss post-COVID-19 economic cooperation. There, the U.S. government stressed its clean network policy and asked the South Korean government to rule out Huawei. “It is an issue to be determined by the private sector,” the South Korean government said in response.
The clean network policy, which was announced in August, is to exclude the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese enterprises from every IT industry segment ranging from communications equipment and smartphone application to cloud service and submarine cable. The U.S. government has put the same pressure on South Korea since last year, when the issue of eavesdropping by China came to the surface. At that time, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris met with National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong to discuss the matter.
“We discussed various economic and security issues, 5G clean network, technology transfer, and so on,” the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained after the meeting, adding, “When it comes to the Huawei issue, the United States’ stance is that South Korean mobile carriers should not do business with a certain company, and yet it is not a matter to be determined by the government.” The ministry also said that the two governments will keep in close touch with each other concerning 5G security concerns.
“The two governments are continuing to discuss South Korean semiconductor companies’ exports blocked as a result of U.S. restrictions on Huawei,” the ministry went on to say. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix stopped their business with Huawei after the restrictions for blocking semiconductor supply to Huawei.