South Korea and Japan should form an "economic security alliance" centered on energy, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence (AI) amid growing global supply chain risks stemming from the U.S.-Iran conflict, business leaders from both countries said. They argued that the two nations must move beyond trade expansion to jointly secure resources and build a division-of-labor system for AI infrastructure in order to respond collectively to compound crises.
The Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), an affiliate of the Federation of Korean Industries, held the "Korea-Japan New Economic Cooperation Seminar in the Era of Compound Crises" jointly with the Keidanren Institute of Comprehensive Policy Studies at the Keidanren Kaikan in Tokyo on the 22nd. The seminar was organized to address trade uncertainties facing the business communities of both countries and to develop practical policy alternatives.
Delivering the keynote address, Yeo Han-koo, Korea's Trade Minister at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "Amid U.S.-China strategic competition and instability in the Middle East, flexible solidarity between Korea and Japan, which share common values, is more urgent than ever." He emphasized the significance of the Korea-Japan Supply Chain Partnership Agreement (SCPA) signed in March. Yeo particularly stressed that the two countries should strengthen cooperation on oil and gas in the event of an energy supply crisis. The supply cooperation agreement signed last month between Korea Gas Corporation and JERA, Japan's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, is being viewed as a signal of bilateral energy security coordination.
Experts agreed that reducing dependence on specific countries for critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, and rare earths—which are essential for semiconductors and batteries—is a prerequisite for survival. Ahn Sung-bae, Vice President of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), proposed that "Korea and Japan should significantly expand joint projects for mine development and infrastructure investment in third countries." He argued that by combining the capital and technological capabilities of both countries, they should amplify their voice within multilateral platforms such as the Agreement on Trade in Critical Minerals (ATCM).
The central agenda of the seminar was the "Twin Hub AI Infrastructure Alliance." Experts proposed a model in which AI model training would be conducted in Japan, which has relatively favorable conditions for power supply and cooling, while inference and services would be provided in Korea, which possesses world-class memory semiconductors and data center operation capabilities. If such a collaborative model is implemented, the total cost of ownership (TCO) for AI infrastructure could be dramatically reduced while maintaining AI service response speeds.
Jeong Chul, President of KERI, said, "Based on the tasks derived from the seminar, we will prepare a policy proposal report in May that can produce tangible results."
