South Korean President Lee Jae Myung touched down in Seoul on Monday, 3 August after completing an 11-day overseas tour that spanned the United States, three South American nations, and a brief stop in Germany. The trip combined high-stakes technology diplomacy with bilateral summits aimed at securing critical mineral and energy supply chains.

AI and Tech Diplomacy in San Francisco

The tour's opening leg brought Lee to San Francisco, where he held a direct meeting with Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang alongside the heads of three other major US technology companies. The discussions centred on advancing bilateral cooperation in artificial intelligence, a sector South Korea has identified as a strategic priority. The Nvidia meeting, in particular, signals Seoul's intent to deepen semiconductor and AI supply-chain ties with leading American firms at a time of intensifying global competition in the sector.

South America Summits: Minerals and Energy

Lee subsequently visited Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, holding presidential summits in each country. The meetings yielded agreements to strengthen cooperation across critical and strategic minerals — lithium, copper, and rare earths among the likely focus areas given the three nations' resource profiles — as well as crude oil imports. South Korea, which imports nearly all of its energy needs, has been actively diversifying supply partnerships amid global commodity volatility.

Frankfurt Stopover

At his final stop in Frankfurt, Germany, Lee held a brief community engagement with members of the Korean diaspora before returning home. The stopover, while short, underscored the diplomatic value South Korea places on overseas Korean communities as informal ambassadors.

Domestic Agenda: Housing and Markets

Back in Seoul, President Lee was scheduled to resume policy briefings from government ministries beginning Tuesday, starting with the trade, environment, and labour ministries, followed by the foreign, defence, and unification ministries on Wednesday.

Later on Monday, Lee was set to convene a special closed-door meeting at Cheong Wa Dae with key economic ministers, including Prime Minister Han Seong-sook and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, to address mounting concerns over the housing market and sharp fluctuations in the local stock market. The government has been working to revise the property tax system, tackle housing supply-demand imbalances, and introduce regulatory measures around single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which officials have linked to heightened market volatility.

The dual challenge of stabilising real estate and reining in speculative trading instruments will likely define the domestic economic agenda in the weeks ahead.