South Korea's President Lee Calls for Expanded U.S. Ties in Tech, Innovation

By Park Boram SAN FRANCISCO, July 25 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung said Saturday that South Korea and the United States should advance their ties beyond their time-honored alliance by expanding cooperation into technology, innovation and startups. Lee made the remarks at a meeting in San Francisco with venture capitalists investing in Silicon Valley. The South Korean president arrived here Friday en route to Brazil, the first destination of his three-nation trip to South America. "South Korea and the U.S. should expand the scope of their cooperation beyond the longstanding security alliance to include technology, innovation and startups," Lee said. He insisted that combining the U.S.' world-class venture capital capacity and global networks with South Korea's advanced technology and manufacturing competitiveness would create new global innovators, the likes of global chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, that will lead the world.