Prime Minister Kim Min-seok (Yonhap)
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok (Yonhap)

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok will visit the United States this week to meet with senior US officials and lawmakers, his office said Wednesday, including a possible meeting with US Vice President J.D. Vance.

Kim will visit Washington and New York from Thursday to Monday on his first overseas trip as prime minister and also meet with Korean residents in the country.

Sources said a meeting with Vance is being arranged, which would allow the two sides to discuss ongoing tariff and trade issues.

Under a deal reached in November, Washington agreed to lower "reciprocal" tariffs on South Korean goods to 15 percent while Seoul agreed to invest $350 billion in the US.

A new challenge has emerged, however, as Washington has since announced plans to impose separate tariffs on memory chip makers that do not build facilities in the US, putting additional strain on South Korean semiconductor companies.

It is rare for a prime minister to visit the US alone to discuss bilateral issues, and Kim's trip suggests he will seek to help resolve the uncertainties.

"This visit is expected to positively contribute to the stable maintenance and strengthening of South Korea-US relations," his office said in a press release. (Yonhap)