{"id":53745,"date":"2025-09-28T05:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T09:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/south-korea-rejects-u-s-demand-for-350-billion-upfront-cash-in-tariff-deal-citing-economic-risk\/53745\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T05:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T09:08:16","slug":"south-korea-rejects-u-s-demand-for-350-billion-upfront-cash-in-tariff-deal-citing-economic-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/south-korea-rejects-u-s-demand-for-350-billion-upfront-cash-in-tariff-deal-citing-economic-risk\/53745\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea Rejects U.S. Demand for $350 Billion Upfront Cash in Tariff Deal, Citing Economic Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>South Korea has formally rejected a U.S. request for a $350 billion upfront cash payment<\/strong> as part of a deal to reduce U.S. tariffs on South Korean goods.<\/li>\n<li>Senior South Korean officials warned that such a massive cash outlay could <strong>plunge the nation&#39;s $410 billion foreign exchange reserves into a financial crisis<\/strong>, deeming the demand &quot;objectively and realistically not a level we are able to handle.&quot;<\/li>\n<li>The rejection has led to a <strong>deadlock in negotiations<\/strong>, with Seoul seeking alternative solutions to the proposed investment structure, which was initially agreed upon as loans, guarantees, and equity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>South Korea has pushed back against a demand from the United States for an upfront cash payment of <strong>$350 billion<\/strong> as part of a broader tariff-reduction agreement, according to senior officials in Seoul. The rejection underscores significant friction in ongoing trade talks between the two allies.<\/p>\n<p>National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac stated on Channel A News television that South Korea is &quot;not able to pay $350 billion in cash,&quot; emphasizing that such an immediate outlay is &quot;objectively and realistically not a level we are able to handle.&quot; This stance comes after U.S. President Donald Trump insisted this week that the investment be provided &quot;upfront,&quot; a departure from Seoul&#39;s understanding of the July handshake deal.<\/p>\n<p>The initial agreement, reached in July by the leaders of both nations, aimed to lower U.S. tariffs on South Korean goods from <strong>25% to 15%<\/strong>. Under that deal, South Korea had pledged <strong>$350 billion<\/strong> towards U.S. projects, but envisioned it as a combination of loans, loan guarantees, and equity investments, rather than a lump-sum cash payment.<\/p>\n<p>South Korean President Lee Jae Myung previously warned that meeting the U.S. demand for a massive cash injection without safeguards, such as a currency swap, could trigger a &quot;foreign exchange crisis&quot; for the country. South Korea&#39;s foreign exchange reserves currently stand at approximately <strong>$410 billion<\/strong>, making a <strong>$350 billion<\/strong> cash payment a substantial and potentially destabilizing withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>Officials in Seoul have also expressed concerns over U.S. demands for control over the allocated funds, contributing to the current &quot;deadlock&quot; in negotiations. South Korea is actively seeking alternative solutions and aims to finalize the trade deal during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which Seoul is hosting. The situation highlights the challenges in economic diplomacy, particularly when dealing with large financial commitments and differing interpretations of trade agreements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways South Korea has formally rejected a U.S. request for a $350 billion upfront cash payment as part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[4179,4824,5083,5136,5605,6213,6373,9482],"class_list":["post-53745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-tariffs","tag-geopolitics","tag-united-states","tag-south-korea","tag-trade-deal","tag-apec","tag-foreign-exchange","tag-economic-diplomacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}