President Lee Jae Myung (center, front row) poses for a photo with US Sen. Tammy Duckworth (front left), Sen. Andy Kim (front right) and Joseph Yun (second from left, back row), acting US ambassador to South Korea, at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, Monday. (Yonhap)
President Lee Jae Myung met Monday with US Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Andy Kim, who are visiting Seoul as part of a regional trip to Asia that will continue to Japan, at the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul.
The meeting comes ahead of Lee’s visit to Washington later this month for his first summit with US President Donald Trump, where the future of the alliance, US troop levels in Korea, defense cost-sharing and new areas of industrial cooperation are expected to be on the agenda. Lee is also set to visit Japan immediately before traveling to the US.
According to the presidential office, Lee stressed that the “blood alliance” between South Korea and the US should continue to evolve into a “future-oriented comprehensive strategic alliance” encompassing security, economy and advanced technologies, calling for support from the US Congress in this process.
Lee also expressed hopes that his upcoming summit with Trump would “deliver tangible outcomes across a wide range of sectors, including shipbuilding cooperation.”
The senators welcomed Lee’s message, reaffirming that congressional support for the South Korea-US alliance is bipartisan, as they expressed hopes to further strengthen cooperation with Seoul, calling it a key ally in the Indo-Pacific region.
The senators also said that Lee’s plan to visit Japan before Washington reflects Seoul’s commitment to strengthening bilateral relations with Tokyo and trilateral cooperation with the US.
After meeting with Lee, Kim, the junior senator representing New Jersey from the US Democratic Party, held separate talks with National Assembly Speaker Rep. Woo Won-shik of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea in Yeouido, joined by Joseph Yun, acting US ambassador to South Korea. Woo asked for congressional backing to ensure a successful outcome from the upcoming Lee-Trump summit.
Duckworth, the junior senator representing Illinois who is also a Democrat, met Defense Minister Ahn Kyu-baek at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan.
During the meeting, Ahn urged “continued interest from Congress to reinforce combined defense readiness and strengthen the credibility of extended deterrence.”
Duckworth reaffirmed the US commitment to its forces stationed in Korea. “US Forces Korea remain a cornerstone of deterrence against North Korea and of peace and stability on the peninsula,” she said.
Duckworth and Ahn also agreed to expand cooperation in shipbuilding, maintenance, repair and overhaul and the defense industry.
National Assembly Speaker Rep. Woo Won-shik (right) shakes hands with Joseph Yun (left), acting US ambassador to South Korea, who visited Woo’s office along with US Sen. Andy Kim, D-New Jersey, at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. (Yonhap) 
South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back (left) speaks with US Sen. Tammy Duckworth (right), D-Illinois, at the Defense Ministry in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, Monday. (Defense Ministry via Yonhap)
The US senators’ trip took place as Washington looks to tap the shipbuilding capacity of South Korea and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest shipbuilders, to compensate for America’s industrial decline.
According to the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, US commercial shipbuilding accounted for just 0.1 percent of global output in 2024, compared to 53 percent for China.
Duckworth, who also serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, previously warned in a recent interview with The Associated Press that US naval support capabilities have fallen below the levels of the 2003 Iraq War, saying “we have to rebuild the capacity,” as current facilities are aging and increasingly costly to maintain.
“If we have to bring ships all the way back to the United States to wait two years to be fixed, that doesn’t help the situation,” she said.
South Korean shipbuilders are already engaging with the US Navy.
Hanwha Ocean in March completed maintenance on the 41,000-ton USNS Wally Schirra, its first project under a 2024 repair agreement. Hanwha also owns Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, while HD Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a maintenance support agreement with the US Navy in May and has discussed possible investments in the US.
In recent trade talks, Seoul proposed investing $150 billion in the US shipbuilding industry as part of what it called the “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again” initiative, tying cooperation in shipyards to broader alliance discussions with Washington.
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