The head of South Korea’s arms acquisition agency said that the nation is discussing with the United States ways to address legal barriers to bilateral shipbuilding cooperation.
 
Seok Jong-gun, minister of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration(DAPA), made the remarks on Wednesday during a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The minister said that legal barriers prevent the two nations from pursuing the shipbuilding cooperation they both want, but added that he aimed to discuss those barriers during his planned meetings with senior officials from the Pentagon and the Department of the Navy.

While U.S. President Donald Trump expressed last month at a summit with President Lee Jae Myung that the U.S. would consider buying ships from South Korea, various U.S. regulations, such as the Jones Act and the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment, still block foreign shipbuilders from entering the American ship market.

The DAPA chief said it is necessary to quickly address the matter at a leadership level in the U.S. and pointed to difficulties meeting U.S. demand for shipbuilding cooperation through the Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, which is currently the only South Korea-run shipyard in the U.S.