“Two Presidents, One Agenda,” One Year Later: An Update on the US-ROK Alliance and Preview of the Biden-Yoon Summit

Save the Date

Please join the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Korea Center for a special discussion in advance of the upcoming U.S.-ROK presidential summit. As President Joe Biden prepares to welcome South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to Washington, D.C., we take a look back over the past year of U.S.-ROK relations, assessing progress and previewing discussion topics likely to be at the forefront of the April 26^th summit.

Ahead of the first Biden-Yoon Summit in May 2022, we published the briefing book, Two Presidents, One Agenda—featuring memos by 18 authors from both American and Korean academic and policy circles. The briefing book offered Biden and Yoon specific policy recommendations to address the most significant security and economic challenges the two allies face.

Now, one year later, on the eve of the 2023 summit, the Korea Center will gather U.S. and South Korean experts to re-assess key takeaways from the briefing book, in light of the events of the past year.

The first panel will assess the continuing geostrategic concerns facing the United States and South Korea, including U.S.-China strategic competition and its implications for South Korea, the growing North Korea threat, how to improve U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral relations, and the regional implications of the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war. The second panel will go beyond security to offer insights into U.S.-ROK cooperation on economic and trade issues.