The investments were announced during a ceremony attended by Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan in Washington on Thursday, according to a ministry press release.
US industrial gases supplier Air Products will expand semiconductor gas and rare gas facilities in Pyeongtaek, and chip equipment maker Axcelis will expand production of ion implantation systems in South Korea, the ministry said.
Materials company Corning will invest in advanced glass and other materials used in displays and semiconductors, and renewable energy developer Pacifico Energy will advance a 3.2-gigawatt offshore wind project in the country’s southwest expected to host a new chips cluster, according to the press release.
This comes after reports emerged which said that South Korea is preparing to deploy military assets to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and aims to dispatch them before the end of the year, media reported late on Thursday, citing government and military sources.
The reports in several South Korean media outlets said the government was preparing procedures to seek parliamentary approval for the deployment, including submitting a consent motion to parliament this month after cabinet review.
The government was considering options including sending a maritime patrol aircraft, a logistics support vessel or a mine detection and clearance unit, and had been discussing the scale and nature of a potential contribution with countries including the United States, Britain and France, the reports said.
South Korea’s presidential Blue House said Seoul had been discussing practical ways to contribute to freedom of navigation in the strait, but reports that the government had settled on a deployment were “different from the facts”.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an August social media post that he had scaled back U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises in part because South Korea had declined to help the U.S. in the war against Iran.
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