Anchor: President Yoon Suk Yeol says that South Korea will establish a critical mineral partnership with key African nations. On the second day of the first-ever Korea-Africa Summit, Yoon made the pledge at a business summit attended by corporate leaders from South Korea and Africa.
Yun Sohyang has this report. 

Report: Seoul is seeking to establish a tighter partnership with African nations to ensure stable supply of critical minerals from the resource-rich continent. 

On the second day of the 2024 Korea-Africa summit on Wednesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol joined a business forum with key corporate leaders, calling for a new collaboration ​to ride out growing uncertainties in global supply chains.

[Sound bite: President Yoon Suk Yeol (Korean-English as translated by onsite interpreter)]
"We are faced with complex challenges around the world and in this point in time, solidarity and cooperation is more important than ever before due to geopolitical issues. We are seeing instabilities in the global supply chain, and that is why the role of Africa is in the limelight. With the major countries of Africa, we have launched the critical minerals security partnership, and this will expand our cooperation in the area of minerals."  

On the first day of the multilateral gathering with 48 African nations the previous day, the two sides agreed to launch ​the Korea-Africa Critical Minerals Dialogue.

Speaking before some 400 Korean and African business leaders, President Yoon also introduced his plans to set up Economic Partnership Agreements(EPA) and Trade and Investment Promotion Frameworks(TIPF) with more African countries.

[Sound bite: President Yoon Suk Yeol (Korean-English / as translated by onsite interpreter)] 
"Despite the great potential, trade and investments by Korea is only one to two percent for Africa compared to the total amount of trade and investment. With the African continental free trade area, Africa will become the largest, single economy. This will facilitate the trade and investment by businesses and that is why we have signed the economic partnership agreement, and we need to make sure that institutions are in place." 

The first Korea-Africa summit brought together delegations from 48 African nations, including 25 heads of state.  

In a bid to get closer to Africa, South Korea is pushing for "tailored development cooperation" to meet diverse demands of the beneficiaries of South Korea’s Official Development Assistance(ODA). 

South Korea aims to increase its ODA to around ten billion U.S. dollars by 2030 and provide export financing of about 14 billion dollars in an effort to help Korean businesses expand trade and investment in Africa.
Yun Sohyang, KBS World Radio News.