South Korea and the US secure a foreign exchange accord, says Seoul
Koo Yun-cheol, who is the Minister of Finance for South Korea, has stated that South Korea and the United States have reached a final agreement on a foreign currency arrangement and that the two countries want to make the announcement in the near future. On Saturday evening, as Koo was engaged in a conversation with members of the press at Incheon International Airport, he refrained from providing any further details about the deal.
According to a report, this issue is not connected to the conversations that are currently taking place regarding the possibility of a currency swap as part of the bilateral negotiations that are being conducted in regards to the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on products imported from South Korea. The report cited an anonymous official from the finance ministry as its source.
Koo reported that the President of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, made it clear to Scott Bessent, who is the United States Secretary of the Treasury, on Wednesday of this week that the Asian nation needed a foreign exchange swap in order to facilitate the $350 billion investment that it has pledged to its partner in the tariff discussions. Bessent had made it clear to Koo that he was planning to travel back to South Korea after consulting with other officials from the United States; at this time, he would gather any fresh information that he could find. As Donald Trump has been implying in the past few days, Seoul is unable to pay the $350 billion “in advance,” and this was something that Wi Sung-lac, the National Security Advisor for South Korea, took sure to emphasize on Saturday.
President Lee warned that if the South Korean government does not implement precautionary measures this month and instead gives in to the demands of the United States, the country’s economy will be in grave danger of experiencing a catastrophe similar to the one that occurred in 1997. Koo has stated that he did not have any knowledge regarding any of the details of a report that made the claim that Howard Lutnick, who is the Secretary of Commerce, had explored the idea of increasing the amount of money that was invested, which was $350 billion.
