HARTFORD – Connecticut made a play for more business partnerships with South Korea, especially in technology, during a two-day visit from Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha.
Economics and peace in a world on edge make it important for the neighboring countries, as well as the United States, to find common ground and eventually negotiate a reduction in nuclear arms with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, Kung said during an exclusive interview with CT Insider in the landmark Goodwin Hotel on Friday.
Kang’s trip included a visit to Yale University’s East Asian Studies Center on Thursday, then lunch with Gov. Ned Lamont and state business leaders in the Governor’s Residence, followed by an evening appearance before the World Affairs Council in Hartford. Friday afternoon she spoke at Wesleyan University in Middletown before catching a plane from Bradley International Airport back to Washington.
During a wide-ranging interview that included the global phenomena of K-pop music and K-beauty products, as well as South Korea’s distinction as having the fifth-largest number of Connecticut-based Otis elevators in the world, Kang said that South Korea’s $350 billion commitment to supporting projects in the United States is likely to start with a gas-fired generator in Texas.
“That’s not yet announced, but it seems like a sure thing,” Kang said, adding that the investment plans of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung may continue into new U.S. construction of nuclear-powered electric plants. South Korea has 26 working nuclear plants, with plans for another four, she said.
“It follows the trajectory of Korean businesses who’s already been investing billions in the United States,” said Kang, 71, who holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. “While I sit in D.C. and deal mostly with our counterparts and the U.S. government, a part of my job is also public diplomacy, getting out there and telling our story to the average, everyday Americans.”
Kang said she wished she had more time to visit with some of Connecticut’s estimated 16,000 residents of Korean heritage.
Lamont said Friday that the lunch with Kang was memorable and productive. The lunch conversation centered on expanding Connecticut’s economic relationship with South Korea, Lamont said. Those in attendance at the lunch included Otis president and CEO Judy Marks.
“The number of elevators they have per person was…” Lamont hesitated, with a smile. “Anybody take the steps? I don’t know.”
Lamont said that Kang’s visit to Yale dovetailed with recent state investments in quantum technologies in a joint project with the University of Connecticut and Yale University aimed at advanced machine learning, computing and secure communications.
He said South Korea and Connecticut are a relatively small country and state, respectively, but are “big in terms of brain power” and research and development.
“I said, ‘Look, we weren’t at the forefront of large-language models, but we are going to be at the forefront of quantum technology,'” Lamont said.
Kang agreed with Lamont’s lunchtime assessment of the relative size of South Korea and Connecticut.
“He says Connecticut is a small and mighty state, and I always say Korea is a small and mighty country, so there’s a shared spirit,” Kang said. “There are many potential areas of collaboration that will benefit the state and Korea, especially in some of these high-tech manufacturing sectors.”
She added with a smile, “Not just K-pop.”
Kang also discussed the larger relationship South Korea has with the U.S., especially in relation to North Korea.
South Korea’s recent support of reduced international sanctions against its nuclear-armed neighbor to the north makes sense on many levels, Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha said Friday.
“We’re supportive of the dialogue between the United States and North Korea,” Kang said. “We want to be the pacemaker, while President Trump wants to be the peacemaker. At this point, there’s no channel of communication between South and North Korea, or between the United States and North Korea, while North Korea keeps strengthening its nuclear missile capability. As a matter of fact, we welcome any attempts at dialogue or engagement with North Korea because we just cannot let the situation continue to drift like this with (North Korea’s) increasing capabilities and, of course, with the newfound friendship with Russia.”
Kang said that while North Korea seems to be “in a much-better place than it was in 2018,” there has to be a way to resume conversations on the nuclear issue.
She served as foreign minister in South Korea from 2017 to 2021.
Kang stressed the need for South Korea’s “firm, solid defense posture” combined with continued U.S. military presence there, “and a robust deterrence, vis-a-vis, any threat from North Korea. It’s not realistic that we immediately jump to denuclearization, so we’re saying freeze, reduce and then denuclearize. It has to start somewhere.”
This article originally published at ‘Small and mighty’: Why Connecticut sees South Korea as a tech partner.