Both teams agreed that South Korea's interests demand a continued close partnership with the United States

• Even though participants acknowledged that U.S. policy choices could have negative effects on South Korea's economy, moving closer to China was perceived to be too risky for the ROK and incommensurate with any expected benefits.
• There was a sense, at least among some players, that China is an untrustworthy partner for South Korea.

A consistent theme was the need to consider short-term and long-term trade-offs

• South Korea's semiconductor industry would suffer in the short term because of U.S. restrictions. However, the ROK might benefit in the long term because of the disruption to China's emergence as a serious competitor in the high-tech industry.
• South Korea is not entirely free of China's growing competitiveness in the memory chip industry, particularly in flash memory manufacturing.
• Much discussion centered on the question of whether—and how—South Korean firms could ride out the short-term damage inflicted by more-severe sanctions on China; for example, the United States could provide the ROK with government support via direct subsidies or incentives.

The U.S.-China rivalry requires South Korea to more closely align its political, security, and economic interests with each other

• Ideally, South Korea would gain maximum benefit from economic interchange with China while retaining a reliable security commitment from the United States.
• However, both teams agreed that the increasingly antagonistic U.S.-China relationship has rendered this balancing act to be untenable over the long term.

• Even though the relationship between South Korea and the United States is complicated and, at times, problematic for the ROK, this relationship is critical to South Korea's security and economic health. The relationship must be kept strong and, when possible, further strengthened.
• Strengthening the relationship will require changes in South Korean and U.S. behavior to minimize unanticipated disadvantages created by any policy actions and to promote technological cooperation.
• South Korea should work with the United States and others to agree on a common suite of export controls and to diversify the sources of supply away from China.
• Even though the ROK-U.S. relationship cannot be risked by economic incentives from China, South Korea needs a basis on which it can continue to preserve its ties with China.