President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung pose for a photo with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and his wife Bolorchuluun Luvsan-Oidov at a ger at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar on Thursday (local time), during Lee's state visit to Mongolia. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung pose for a photo with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and his wife Bolorchuluun Luvsan-Oidov at a ger at the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar on Thursday (local time), during Lee's state visit to Mongolia. [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae Myung held a summit with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh on Thursday (local time) during his state visit to Mongolia, conveying South Korea's requests on rare earth supply chain cooperation as a priority, Cheong Wa Dae said.

A senior Cheong Wa Dae official briefed reporters at a press center in central Ulaanbaatar that day, saying Lee had addressed rare earth supply chains as a top priority during the talks.

The official added that the two sides plan to establish relevant organizations and consultative bodies to accelerate discussions, noting that the issue is one Lee cares deeply about — to the point that he held additional talks with relevant ministers after the summit concluded.

Asked how much practical impact cooperation with Mongolia could realistically have in reducing South Korea's dependence on China for rare earths, the official said the government's position of diversifying its supply system to reduce the risk of excessive dependence on any single country is well known, but that Mongolia is not the only target of that diversification. "If there is an entity we are overly dependent on, the goal is to build multiple alternative sources," the official said.

Meanwhile, the official said that regarding Donald Trump's request — raised during Lee's visit to the NATO summit — for South Korea to build US naval vessels, the impression is that Trump "does not appear to be excluding construction in South Korea."

Trump had earlier approached Lee on the sidelines of the G7 summit last month, asking whether South Korea could quickly build 10 US warships.

The two leaders then met at the official welcome dinner of the NATO summit on Tuesday and continued follow-up discussions on military vessel construction.

The official said the conversation between the two leaders "was not a structured exchange," describing it as "a fragmented conversation held while standing briefly at the dinner venue."

The official added that further working-level consultations are needed to flesh out the details and fill in the gaps that remain unclear.

The official said that after the leaders' conversation, South Korean working-level staff had tried to continue talks with their US counterparts on the spot, but the US side had no time for detailed discussions because of the urgent situation in the Middle East. Further consultations are planned, the official added.

On US laws — including the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment — that in principle prohibit the construction of naval vessels abroad, the official said questions remain about "how to work around the current law and how to resolve the issue."

The official said there may be room for the president to act and various other options to explore, noting that Congress also appears to be relevant. It also remains to be determined whether the type of construction Trump has in mind would fall under block construction, the official added.


sang@heraldcorp.com