Yoon embarks on state visit to Netherlands

President Yoon Suk Yeol departed Monday on a state visit to the Netherlands to strengthen semiconductor cooperation between the two countries.

The four-day visit will include a visit to the headquarters of ASML, the world’s sole producer of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that are critical to making advanced chips.

Yoon will be the first foreign leader to be invited inside a “cleanroom” manufacturing facility at the ASML headquarters in Veldhoven on Tuesday, according to his office.

“We plan to combine the Netherlands’ high-tech equipment with South Korea’s high-tech manufacturing abilities to maximize the complementarity of the semiconductor value chain,” Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo told reporters last Thursday.

“We will have focused discussions on ways to establish a semiconductor alliance that encompasses the governments, businesses and universities,” he said.

Yoon’s state visit takes place at the invitation of Dutch King Willem-Alexander. He is the first South Korean president to pay such a visit to the Netherlands since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1961. Yoon is joined on the trip by first lady Kim Keon Hee.

The Netherlands is the biggest investor in South Korea among the member states of the European Union and the second-largest trade partner after Germany, according to the presidential office.

The focus on semiconductors underscores the industry’s growing strategic importance as building stable supply chains has become key amid the intensifying U.S.-China competition over advanced technologies.

Yoon has expressed hope stronger semiconductor cooperation with the Netherlands will also help further develop South Korea’s defense industry.

“I believe semiconductor cooperation with the Netherlands, with its world-leading lithography technology, such as EUV, will greatly contribute to strengthening our defense industry capabilities and create new opportunities for defense industry exports,” he said during a strategy meeting last week.

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Chairman Chey Tae-won plan to join Yoon during the visit to ASML. The two South Korean companies are among the world’s leading chipmakers.

Yoon will also travel to The Hague, the seat of the Dutch government, on Wednesday.

He will hold a joint meeting with the leaders of both chambers of the Dutch parliament, before holding talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Yoon and Rutte will then hold a joint press conference and attend a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony, as well as a luncheon hosted by the prime minister.

In The Hague, Yoon also plans to stop at the Yi Jun Peace Museum, which honors the Korean diplomat and prosecutor who, along with two other Koreans, was dispatched by Emperor Gojong in 1907 to attend the Second Hague Peace Conference in the city.

Their mission to call attention to the unlawfulness of Japan’s colonization of Korea failed, and Yi was found dead in his hotel room a few days later.

Other events on the president’s schedule will include a meeting in Amsterdam with Dutch veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War and a South Korea-Netherlands business forum.

The Netherlands sent more than 5,000 troops to fight alongside South Korea during the war.