Yoon to announce S. Korea's participation in IPEF

SEOUL, May 18 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol plans to announce South Korea's participation as a founding member of the U.S.-proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a presidential official said Wednesday. Yoon is considering making the announcement during his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul this Saturday and then virtually joining a summit in Tokyo next Tuesday where Biden will formally launch the initiative, the official said. The IPEF is a framework unveiled by Biden at the East Asia Summit last October to strengthen U.S. economic cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners in key areas such as fair trade, supply chain resilience, infrastructure, clean energy, and decarbonization. The initiative is widely viewed as an anti-China coalition aimed at excluding China from global supply chains. Yoon said in a speech to parliament Monday that he will discuss ways to strengthen cooperation on global supply chains through the IPEF when he meets with Biden this week. hague@yna.co.kr (END)