Washington: The vice chief of South Korea's arms procurement agency recently held discussions with a senior official of the U.S. Navy to explore avenues for cooperation in the construction of American warships, as announced by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) on Friday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, DAPA Vice Commissioner Kang Hwan-seok and Jason Potter, assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, engaged in talks in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Their discussions focused on enhancing collaboration in the fields of shipbuilding and naval maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). A significant topic of their meeting was the potential revision of the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment, a U.S. act that mandates Navy fleets to be manufactured in American shipyards.
Both officials acknowledged the necessity of revisiting this amendment and agreed to form a working-level group to further examine opportunities for cooperation in shipbuilding. This meeting comes at a pivotal time as shipbuilding has become a central area of focus in the recent tariff negotiations between Seoul and Washington.
South Korea has put forward a large-scale cooperation initiative in shipbuilding, known as "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" (MASGA), in response to the U.S. administration's efforts to revitalize its shipbuilding industry amidst China's dominant ship construction capabilities.