Yoon to take 122-person business delegation to U.S.

President Yoon Suk Yeol will take a 122-person business delegation with him on his visit to the United States next week to bolster cooperation between the two countries across diverse sectors ranging from advanced technologies to cultural content, his office said Wednesday.

The delegation will be made up of chiefs of conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung, and the heads of six major business associations, including the Federation of Korean Industries and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, among others.

“It will be the largest business delegation since the launch of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, with promising small- and medium-sized enterprises accounting for 70 percent of the total,” Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Choi Sang-mok told reporters.

“By sector, it will be diverse, from semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, bio, robots, IT and software among advanced industries, to cultural content and the defense industry, demonstrating the widening horizon of economic cooperation between South Korea and the U.S.,” he said.

Yoon’s state visit to Washington comes as the two countries mark the 70th anniversary of their alliance. During the trip, Yoon is set to hold a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden on April 26 and address a joint session of Congress the day after.

While in Washington, Yoon will attend a ceremony where U.S. advanced technology firms will announce plans to invest in South Korea, and a business roundtable involving some 30 CEOs of major companies from both countries, including Samsung, SK, Hyundai, Qualcomm, Lam Research and Boeing, Choi said.

The president will also visit the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center just outside Washington to discuss space cooperation between the two countries and meet with Korean scientists working for NASA.

Other items on his itinerary include a global video content leadership forum, where Yoon will present a vision for cultural solidarity and cooperation between the two countries, and meet with officials from American mass media companies, such as Paramount, Warner Bros., Discovery, NBCUniversal Media, Sony Pictures, The Walt Disney Company and Netflix.

The event was organized by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Choi said it will be the first time representatives from the association and the six global mass media companies will hold discussions together, demonstrating the growing status of South Korean media content.

Yoon will also stop in Boston, home to a world-class bio cluster.

While there, he will visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to hold talks with leading scholars in the digital and bio sectors, hold a roundtable with experts and businesspeople working in innovation clusters, and give an address on freedom, including the threats it faces and solutions, at Harvard University, Choi said.