Why California and South Korea Need to Build Joint Soft Power Plus

As the United States and South Korea mark the seventieth anniversary of their alliance in 2023, the countries have the opportunity to rethink optimal strategies that will enable the alliance to thrive well into the 2030s and beyond. One way is by strengthening and deepening a range of ties with key U.S. states such as California. Over the past decade, billions of dollars of South Korean investments in automobiles, semiconductors, and batteries have poured into Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Michigan—but forging much stronger ties between California and South Korea would maximize each player’s competitive advantages.

For South Korea, California is a natural laboratory for AI collaboration, fighting climate change, technology-driven entertainment, and higher education opportunities. Conversely, California can gain increased leverage as a major Pacific economy by enhancing economic ties with South Korea, bolstering AI-based R&D and production with South Korea’s advanced manufacturing capabilities, and providing greater incentives for South Korean students to pursue higher education at major Californian universities. As the number of Chinese students studying in the United States has dropped sharply over the past several years, ensuring that a greater number of South Koreans continue to study in the United States (including California) will form a crucial talent pool. But at the same time, South Korea has to also contend with a growing science and technology brain drain as more South Koreans seek to study and work abroad, especially in the United States. According to data from South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT,¹ the number of South Koreans opting to study or work abroad in the high-tech arena (primarily in the United States) numbered 340,000 from 2012 to 2021.² Simultaneously, the global AI race is spurring all major economies to significantly boost STEM majors. South Korea is hardly an exception. However, if California, including Silicon Valley, provides incentives to South Korean students or tech workers, both the United States and South Korea will benefit from a high-tech virtuous cycle.

California is home to the largest group of overseas Koreans (in greater Los Angeles) whose history goes back a hundred years. Although Korean immigration to the United States has dropped sharply over the past three decades owing to South Korea’s rapid economic growth, California can become a key conduit for the next jump in bilateral cooperation. Building more resilient supply chains, boosting AI-driven semiconductor R&D, enhancing South Korea’s increasingly global entertainment prowess, and working together on key global threats such as accelerating global warming will not be limited to South Korea and California’s deepening ties. But it can become a force multiplier that both sides must maximize. In many ways, Seoul faces problems from all sides, reminiscent of the blockbuster film . Hence, South Korea has to reimagine, reengineer, and reconstitute its longer-term growth blueprint in an era that is going to be dominated by worsening climate change, massive manpower shortages, and unparalleled geopolitical risks. From such a perspective, as Seoul thinks about revamping and modernizing its alliance with the United States, a deepening South Korean partnership with California—not to mention with other key U.S. states—will provide new opportunities for both the United States and Korea.

Tailoring Seoul’s Globalization Strategy With California

When South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visited Washington, DC, in April 2023, the two allies announced a Washington Declaration that laid the foundation for a comprehensive security, economic, and technology alliance.³ For the first time, the United States and South Korea also set up a Nuclear Consultative Group to jointly strengthen extended deterrence as North Korea’s nuclear weapons program accelerates. And on August 18, 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden invited Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio for the first stand-alone trilateral summit at Camp David. The three allies stressed a common front across the political, economic, and technology spheres and highlighted the importance of a joint approach to the Indo-Pacific. Their statement read:

We are now cooperating trilaterally on supply chain resilience, particularly on semiconductors and batteries, as well as on technology security and standards, clean energy and energy security, biotechnology, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and scientific research. . . . We will also launch an annual Trilateral Indo-Pacific Dialogue to coordinate implementation of our Indo-Pacific approaches and to continually identify new areas for common action.⁴

As much as strengthening deterrence and defense capabilities vis-à-vis North Korea and China remain at the core of U.S., South Korean, and Japanese trilateral security cooperation, ensuring U.S.-led economic and technological supremacy with key allies such as Japan and South Korea is going to become even more important in AI-based economies. And although South Korea is the world’s thirteenth-largest economy,⁵ its competitiveness is going to become increasingly dependent upon cutting-edge R&D and next-generation innovation platforms.

South Korea is a top export destination for California, and California is home to the largest Korean diaspora in the United States.⁶ South Korea and California have complementary economies and are major innovation laboratories across the economic, trade, technology, energy, entertainment, and healthcare sectors. How California tackles the accelerating impacts of climate change, develops sustainable farming practices and copes with increasing water insecurity, develops new energy platforms, and governs AI-driven technologies cannot but have major implications for economies such as South Korea’s. For California, a key advantage of partnering with South Korea lies in strengthening crucial economic, technological, educational, and entertainment ties as the most powerful Pacific economy in the United States. And for South Korea, enhancing ties with California could also forge common solutions. South Korea not only has one of the world’s most advanced manufacturing capabilities, but it is also one of the most digitalized economies, and its soft power attributes are becoming increasingly attractive. As K-content—such as Korean movies and dramas—becomes more globally recognized, maximizing cooperative ventures with California’s huge entertainment industry will enable K-content to grow in popularity in the United States and throughout the world.

Since the early 2000s, major South Korean companies have continued to increase their investments in the United States. In Alabama, Georgia, and Texas, South Korean conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai, Kia, and SK Hynix have invested billions over the last several years. South Korean foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States jumped from $3.1 billion in 2000 to over $72 billion in 2021.⁷ Most recently, according to official U.S. data, South Korean investments in the United States reached $74.7 billion in 2022.⁸ (While this is a significant amount, Japanese FDI in the United States in 2022 was nearly tenfold, at $712 billion.⁹)

But as the United States and South Korea as well as Japan enhance cooperation across critical technological arenas, new opportunities to revamp South Korea’s ties with the United States lie in California. A major reason is the convergence of five key forces: the accelerating and deepening impacts of climate change; more resilient, secure, and friendly global supply chains (especially in the Indo-Pacific); greater investments and innovations in AI-driven R&D, quantum computing, bioengineering, defense and space, and transportation technologies; higher education reforms in the age of AI; and new opportunities to maximize in technology-driven entertainment.

It would have been unimaginable a decade or two ago for a South Korean president to meet with the CEO of a global entertainment company. But in April 2023, Yoon visited Washington and met with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who announced that Netflix would invest $2.5 billion in K-content over the next four years.¹⁰ Sarandos stressed that “Thanks to the Korean creators, their compelling stories, these stories are now at the heart of the global cultural zestiest,” and, according to the South Korean presidential office, out of some 231 million Netflix subscribers worldwide, more than 60 percent in 190 countries watch Korean content.¹¹ In 2021, Squid Game became the most-watched show on Netflix worldwide, and a growing array of Korean movies and dramas are consistently at the top of Netflix’s global hits.¹²

Although the Korean American population is much smaller than other Asian-Pacific immigrant populations in the United States, some 2 million Korean Americans live in the United States (see figure 1). Forty percent of Korean Americans live in three metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. And as of 2019, well over 200,000 Korean Americans were residing in and around Los Angeles.¹³ According to the Pew Research Center, the Korean population in the United States rose from about 1.28 million in 2000 to a little over 1.9 million in 2019. (The number of Korean immigrants, however, has declined over the last several years, owing to South Korea’s rising living standard.¹⁴ The biggest hike in early immigration occurred in the 1970s to early 1990s.) California’s GDP is the fifth-largest in the world, according to the California governor’s office,¹⁵ and the state is in many respects America’s gateway to the Pacific. Korean Americans can play an important role in ensuring closer economic, educational, technological, and educational ties between South Korea and California.

Why California and South Korea Are Important Partners

Despite South Korea’s rise as a tech power, it faces very low growth rates, like other advanced, mature economies do. In 2022, for example, South Korea’s GDP grew by 2.6 percent according to S&P’s analysis, and it is slated to grow by 1.6 percent in 2023.¹⁶ Compounding anemic growth are two major structural impediments: First, South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate of 0.78, significantly lower than the 2.1 fertility rate a country needs to maintain a stable population (without immigration).¹⁷ According to the South Korean Bureau of Statistics, which draws on UN population data, if South Korea’s current fertility rate of 0.78 percent is not reversed (as is likely), its population is likely to fall from 52 million in 2023 to about 49 million by 2040, although estimates can vary widely depending on data projections. Even more worrisome, however, is the share of South Koreans over the age of sixty-five: the figure was 10.8 percent in 2010 but rose to 17.5 percent in 2022. According to Statistics Korea, senior citizens (those over sixty-five) will comprise 30 percent of the population in 2036 and 40 percent by 2051.¹⁸

 According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), South Korea’s social spending as a percentage of GDP was 14.8 percent, compared to the OECD average of 21.1 percent.¹⁹ This figure is bound to grow since Korea is going to become the OECD’s most aged society in the 2030s and beyond. According to the Korea Economic Research Institute, South Korea is projected to spend some 20.4 percent of GDP on welfare expenditures by 2040 and 31.4 percent in 2050.²⁰ Given that South Korea continues to face significant military threats from North Korea (and increasingly, from China), Seoul cannot afford to decrease defense spending even as its social welfare spending continues to rise. 

Like Japan, South Korea imports nearly 98 percent of its oil and natural gas and is heavily dependent upon a global web of supply chains.²¹ Moreover, South Korea lies at the epicenter of worsening U.S.-China political, economic, military, and technological competition. One way that South Korea can adroitly navigate growing tensions between the United States and China is by strengthening R&D networks with the United States. South Korea’s economic success was driven in large part by its decision to become a very agile and capable fast follower. South Korea should become a niche leader in the global economy with tailored cooperation with the United States, Japan, and key EU economies. As one of the world’s most advanced digital economies, South Korea is already a laboratory for emerging technologies, as is California as it copes with mounting nontraditional threats such as climate change and water security. In more ways than one, California, like South Korea, is a primary laboratory for the Fourth and emerging Fifth Industrial Revolution.

In October 2022, California was poised to overtake Germany as the world’s fourth-largest economy with an estimated GDP of $3.3 trillion.²² California outperforms the United States and the world in renewable energy. In key areas of future growth such as electric vehicles (EVs), remote healthcare, mitigating climate change, and enhancing food security, California also stands out. For South Korea, California offers a template on maximizing innovation. Bloomberg notes that in California in 2022 there were 379 companies that reached a market value of at least $1 billion and that California is a leader in technology hardware, media, and software—three key areas that are near and dear to South Korea’s own high-tech sectors and growing soft power. At the same time, California took a global lead in controlling greenhouse gas emissions by implementing stringent gas emission standards from the early 1970s. As a result, California’s emissions peaked in 2004 and have been decreasing since. The transportation sector accounted for 40 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions.²³ While California has been successful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, growing wildfires could reverse such gains.²⁴

There are, of course, other states where South Korean companies have made huge investments. In July 2022, Samsung floated investing $200 billion to build eleven more chip plants in Texas over the next two decades. This is on top of the $17 billion chip plant it is already building in the state.²⁵ South Korea’s second-largest chipmaking company SK Hynix announced also in July 2022 that it was going to invest an additional $22 billion including in semiconductors, clean energy solutions, and life sciences through the rest of the decade.²⁶ Hyundai Motor Company, South Korea’s largest automobile manufacturer and the world’s third largest, announced in May 2022 that it was going to invest an additional $5 billion to build a new EV plant in Georgia and also provide $3 billion for research and development.²⁷ When the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022, South Korea was concerned that its companies could face discriminatory actions. However, in October 2023, the New York Times reported that South Korea’s major semiconductor manufacturers such as Samsung and SK Hynix “secured waivers from U.S. government rules that threatened to limit their business in China.”²⁸ Moreover, a July 2023 paper from the Peterson Institute for International Economics noted that South Korean firms were likely to “gain tremendously from the increased take-up of EVs in the US market and the tax credits available in the IRA,” given their early moves to open factories in the United States.²⁹

Table 1: Top California Export Destinations (in $U.S. Billions)
Partners	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
World	$178.2	$173.8	$155.9	$174.0	$186.2
Mexico	$30.8	$27.9	$24.1	$27.2	$30.8
China (including Hong Kong)	$26.2	$24.3	$21.3	$23.4	$23.7
Canada	$17.7	$16.7	$16.0	$18.1	$20.6
Japan	$13.0	$11.9	$10.6	$11.8	$11.6
South Korea	$9.9	$9.2	$9.8	$11.6	$11.5
Taiwan	$6.8	$7.2	$7.4	$8.9	$10.4
Netherlands	$6.4	$6.4	$5.7	$6.1	$6.5
Germany	$6.6	$6.4	$6.5	$7.6	$6.3
India	$6.1	$5.6	$4.9	$6.7	$6.0
Source: CalChamber Advocacy, "Trading Partner Portal: South Korea," November 6, 2020, https://advocacy.calchamber.com/international/portals/south-korea/

South Korea is California’s fifth-largest export destination with a total of around $11 billion in 2021 (see table 1).³⁰ It is noteworthy that California accounts for nearly 16 percent of total U.S. exports to South Korea. In 2022, California exported more than $11.5 billion to South Korea, while imports from South Korea to California totaled $31 billion, led by computer and consumer electronic and transportation equipment.³¹

Some 34 percent of California’s global trade was with Indo-Pacific countries (see table 2). While Mexico and Canada are two of California’s top export destinations and China is its largest Asian exporting partner, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan comprised a total of $33.5 billion—a little over half (53 percent) of California’s total exports to Asian economies. Hence, even without China (including Hong Kong), Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—Asia’s most advanced economies and also leading democracies—assume a significant position in California’s own globalization strategy. Table 2 presents an interesting profile of the California–South Korea relationship according to data compiled by the East-West Center.

Table 2: California and South Korea at a Glance
Trade and Investment		Jobs
Goods Exports	Service Exports	Directly Supported by Exports	Indirectly Supported
$11.5 billion	$4.3 billion	42,600	35,200
Total Exports	Greenfield Investment since 2003	Created by Investment
$15.8 billion	$3.4 billion	9,300
Educational Exchange		People-to-People Connections
Number of Students	Economic Impact	Visitor Spending	Population
6,400	$231,900	$436 million	$231,900
Source: “Korea Matters for America Matters for Korea: California and Korea at a Glance,” East-West Center, https://asiamattersforamerica.org/korea/data. Note: Greenfield investment refers to a form of foreign direct investment when a company establishes a subsidiary in another country.

California–South Korea Cooperation in the Age of AI: Building Soft Power Plus

While many factors contributed to South Korea’s economic rise over the past half century, the most important element was the government’s decision for export-driven growth starting in the early 1960s. According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2021 South Korea was the world’s fifth-largest exporter ($653 billion) and ninth in imports ($578 billion).³² It also ranks as the world’s fourth most complex economy based on the Economic Complexity Index.

Because of its export-driven growth strategy, South Korea has no choice but to compete with the world’s most innovative and powerful economies. But Seoul’s globalization strategy is affected immensely by key national security threats such as North Korea’s accelerating nuclear weapons capabilities and China’s increasingly aggressive military posture in the Western Pacific region. Seoul lies at the epicenter of worsening and deepening U.S.-China strategic competition. Nearly 25 percent of South Korea’s exports are destined for China, although the number has continued to drop.³³ But even as Seoul tries to diversify its export destinations (such as by growing investments in Southeast Asia and India), it is virtually impossible to decouple itself from China. Nevertheless, as China ramps up its own high-tech R&D in the face of growing U.S.-led technology sanctions, South Korea’s own technological R&D ecosystem is going to come under increasing pressure from Chinese products. Unless South Korea moves up the high-tech value chain while also coping with immense challenges such as severe manpower shortages and lower economic growth, South Korea will not be able to boost its global competitiveness. Ensuring that South Korea continues to have an edge in advanced manufacturing capabilities is essential. But so too is Seoul’s ability to become a leading soft power generator and innovator. Measuring power is more art than science, and all power indices are inaccurate and incomplete. None really capture hard, soft, or hybrid power. Yet they do allow some level of comparative assessments. Table 3 provides a bird’s-eye view of South Korea’s overall power rankings in 2021–2023.

Table 3: K-Power Rankings in 2021–2023
GDP	Military Strength	Trade	Soft Power Branding	K-pop Economic Impact
$1.67 trillion		$1.2 trillion	15th in world	$1.1 billion
13 in world	6 in world	5th largest exporter in world
Innovation Ranking		Granted Patents	Global Health	Population Ranking
6 in world		156,972 ( 4 in the world)	9 out of 195	51 million (29 in world)
Sources: Yoon Young-sil, “South Korea Slides by 3 Notches in World GDP Rankings,” Business Korea, July 13, 2023, https://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=118345; “2023 South Korea Military Strength,” Global Firepower, https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=south-korea; “South Korea,” Observatory of Economic Complexity, https://oec.world/en/profile/country/kor; “Global Soft Power Index 2023,” Brand Finance, https://brandirectory.com/softpower/chart?region=1&x=1&y=2&z=9999, “Behind Talk: K contensooga Saraya hankuk gyeongjaega salananda,” (Behind Talk: South Korea’s Economy Will Thrive if K-Content Thrives,” CJ ENM, August 16, 2023, https://www.cjenm.com/ko/news/behind-talk-k%EC%BD%98%ED%85%90%EC%B8%A0%EA%B0%80-%EC%82%B4%EC%95%84%EC%95%BC-%ED%95%9C%EA%B5%AD-%EA%B2%BD%EC%A0%9C%EA%B0%80-%EC%82%B4%EC%95%84%EB%82%9C%EB%8B%A4, Gilbert Fontana, “Which Countries Are the Most Innovative?,” World Economic Forum, WIPO Global Innovation Index, January 3, 2023, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/worlds-most-innovative-countries-economy, Jacqueline Tangorra, “Which Countries Are Granted Most New Patents?,” Visual Capitalist, April 23, 2023, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/countries-new-patents, “2021 Global Health Security Index,” GHS Index, https://www.ghsindex.org; “Countries in the World by Population (2023),” Worldometer, updated July 16, 2023, https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country.

At a glance, South Korea’s “power picture” looks quite positive: it is one of the world’s leading trading powers and has significant military capabilities, growing soft power attractiveness, and one of Asia’s most vibrant liberal democracies. But as noted above, South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate and the fastest-aging society. The double-digit economic growth that propelled the South Korean economy from the late 1960s to the early 1990s has been replaced by anemic growth rates of 1–2 percent in the 2020s. Without becoming a niche technology leader, incubating solutions in the rapidly changing global economy of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, building more resilient and risk-mitigating global supply chains, and establishing labor union reforms, South Korean power is likely to peak sooner than later. South Korea needs “innovative disrupters” that emphasize a greater balance between its dominant industrial giants and startups.³⁴ Importantly, as one of the world’s largest and most innovative economies, California can become an innovation stimulus in three main areas: (1) AI-driven networks and platforms across virtually all areas including quantum computing, robotics, mobility, and defense industries; (2) green growth and sustainable energy, food and water security, smart grids, and hydrogen-powered vehicles; and (3) biotechnology and health, with a special emphasis on AI-driven pharmaceutical industries, online and meta-based healthcare, and machine-assisted health care for a rapidly aging society. Beyond these areas, California and South Korea can also collaborate in technology and new content-based entertainment, R&D clusters in Silicon Valley, and reformatting higher education in the age of AI, with key dividends to both economies.

California can also benefit by deepening its ties with the South Korean economy. As the number of Chinese students at U.S. universities has dropped dramatically due to the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and spiraling U.S.-China tensions, California can provide greater incentives to attract South Korean students.³⁵ In 2021–2022, according to the Institute of International Education, 40,755 South Korean students studied in the United States, the third-largest contingent after students from China and India.³⁶And Californian institutions have always been a magnet for South Koreans studying in the United States. California can also benefit by increasing its agricultural exports to South Korea, collaborating on developing the next generation of smart companies, increasing investments in entertainment commensurate with the growing popularity of K-content, and jointly reconfiguring mobility technologies such as hydrogen-powered trucks and cars, as well as greener urban redesign, an area where South Korea is becoming a leader. South Korea is planning to make major investments in the healthcare industry (where California is a leader), particularly in digital healthcare, including the building of eighteen “smart hospitals” by 2025; furthermore, the AI-based healthcare market in South Korea is projected to reach $2.1 billion.³⁷ In November 2022, UC Davis announced a partnership with General Catalyst, which is one of the largest venture capital firms in the United States, and stressed the importance of driving “AI and digital health innovations in . . . health care delivery, research, education and public service,” which also happen to be the same areas that South Korea’s healthcare policy and investments are focusing on.³⁸

Lessons from how California is going to tackle a wide spectrum of challenges can also be applied to South Korea. Marina Gorbis, the executive director of the Institute for the Future, noted in 2022, “The stakes have never been higher. . . . Decisions made in California today will have far-reaching implications for the country and the world.”³⁹ A 2020 study published by the Public Policy Institute of California stressed eleven key issues including climate change, the economy, healthcare, safety net, and water, that will all have increasing relevance for South Korea’s sustainable growth goals and strategies. On climate change alone, California offers insights to South Korea on mitigating challenges such as the growing wildfire risks, worsening native biodiversity, public health threats, water management challenges, and agricultural transformations. For example, the draft California 2030 Natural and Working Lands Climate Change Implementation Plan emphasizes multi-agency coordination to enhance higher returns on investments and could be studied in greater detail by organizations in South Korea, including provincial and local government agencies.

Ultimately, California offers South Korea a Blue Ocean test bed for helping to transform South Korea’s economy to offset mounting, nontraditional threats and challenges. California is also a natural conduit for helping to launch K-content that is becoming increasingly global. Conversely, the South Korean economy also offers California a strong gateway hub to the Western Pacific that houses one of the most advanced economies in Asia. But as the broader U.S.-China competition intensifies and deepens across the military, economic, and technological arenas and South Korea faces the rapid convergence of traditional and nontraditional security threats, cementing stronger partnerships with California will provide critical dividends. And California can depend on South Korea as a key Pacific partner in high-tech innovation and manufacturing, a fast-moving digitalized economy, and an increasingly agile soft power enabler.

Notes

¹ ICT refers to information and communications technology.

² Kim Won-tae, “10nyeon-gan haewae yuchulegognggae injae 34manmyeong (dunweyuchul shimgak), egongge baksa 4myeong joong 1myeong haewaechweeop seonho” (340,000 STEM experts moved overseas over 10 years and a very serious brain drain; one out of four STEM PhDs want to work abroad,” Daehan News, October 24, 2022, http://www.dhns.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=294430.

³ Washington Declaration, The White House, April 26, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/26/washington-declaration-2.

⁴ “The Spirit of Camp David: Joint Statement of Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States,” White House, August 18, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/18/the-spirit-of-camp-david-joint-statement-of-japan-the-republic-of-korea-and-the-united-states/

⁵ “The 20 Countries With the Largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022,” Statista, accessed October 26, 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/268173/countries-with-the-largest-gross-domestic-product-gdp.

⁶ CalChamber Advocacy, “Trading Partner Portal: South Korea,” November 6, 2020, https://advocacy.calchamber.com/international/portals/south-korea; and “Korean American Population by State,” Korea Matters for America, America Matters for Korea, 2021, https://asiamattersforamerica.org/korea/data/population.

⁷ “Foreign Direct Investment From South Korea Into the United States From 2000 to 2021,” Statista, July 31, 2023, FDI from South Korea into the U.S. 2021, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1398765/foreign-direct-investment-south-korea-us.

⁸ “South Korea, International Trade and Investment Country Facts,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, August 2023, http://apps.bea.gov/international/factsheet/factsheet.html#626.

⁹ “Japan, International Trade and Investment Country Facts,” Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, August 2023, https://apps.bea.gov/international/factsheet/factsheet.html#614.

¹⁰ “Netflix Announces Plans to Invest $2.5 Billion in K-content in Meeting with Yoon,” Korea JoongAng Daily, April 25, 2023, https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/04/25/national/diplomacy/Korea-Netflix-Kcontent/20230425073902638.html.

¹¹ “Netflix Announces Plans to Invest $2.5 Billion in K-content in Meeting with Yoon,” Korea JoongAng Daily.

¹² Paul Tassi, “‘Squid Game’ Is Now Netflix’s Most Popular Show Ever, And It’s Not Even Close,” Forbes, October 13, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/10/13/squid-game-is-now-netflixs-most-popular-show-ever-and-its-not-even-close/?sh=58a366936c42.

¹³ Cecilia Esterline and Jeanne Batalova, “Korean Immigrants in the United States,” Migration Policy Institute, April 14, 2022, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/korean-immigrants-united-states.

¹⁴ Esterline and Batalova, “Korean Immigrants in the United States.”

¹⁵ “ICYMI: California Poised to Become World's 4th Biggest Economy,” Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, October 24, 2022, https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/10/24/icymi-california-poised-to-become-worlds-4th-biggest-economy.

¹⁶ Rajiv Biswas, “South Korea Resumes Positive GDP Growth in Early 2023,” S&P Global Market Intelligence, May 3, 2023, https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/research-analysis/south-korea-resumes-positive-gdp-growth-in-early-2023-may23.html#:~:text=South%20Korean%20GDP%20growth%20is,by%20S%26P%20Global%20Market%20Intelligence.

¹⁷ Ashley Ahn, “South Korea Has the World’s Lowest Fertility Rate, a Struggle With Lessons for Us All,” NPR, March 19, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/03/19/1163341684/south-korea-fertility-rate.

¹⁸ Troy Stangarone, “South Korea’s Demographic Trends Continue to Decline,” The Diplomat, August 9, 2022, https://thediplomat.com/2022/08/south-koreas-demographic-trends-continue-to-decline.

¹⁹ “Social Spending (Korea),” OECD, 2019, https://data.oecd.org/socialexp/social-spending.htm.

²⁰ “South Korea to be Tops in Welfare Spending by 2040,” The Korea Bizwire, September 6, 2017, http://koreabizwire.com/south-korea-to-be-top-welfare-spending-by-2040/94299.

²¹ “South Korea,” U.S. Energy Information Administration, April 13, 2023, https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/KOR.

²² Matthew A. Winkler, “California Poised to Overtake Germany as World’s No. 4 Economy,” Bloomberg, October 24. 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-10-24/california-poised-to-overtake-germany-as-world-s-no-4-economy.

²³Indicators of Climate Change in California, fourth edition, (Sacramento, CA: California Environmental Protection Agency, November 2022), i–4, https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/climate-change/document/2022caindicatorsreport.pdf.

²⁴ Haley Smith, “Climate Change Is Rapidly Accelerating in California, State Report Says,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-01/climate-change-rapidly-accelerating-in-california.

²⁵ Won Jaeyeon, “Samsung Weights Building 11 More Chip Plants in the U.S. Over Next Two Decades,” Yonhap News Agency, July 22, 2022, https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220722002900320.

²⁶ “SK Announces $22 Billion in New Investments in the U.S. in Semiconductors, Clean Energy, and Bioscience,” SK Public Policy, July 29, 2022, https://eng.sk.com/news/sk-announces-22-billion-in-new-investments-in-the-u-s-in-semiconductors-clean-energy-and-bioscience.

²⁷ Iulian Dnistran, “Hyundai to Invest $8.5 billion in EV Development, US Factory,” InsideEVs, January 27, 2023, https://insideevs.com/news/633833/hyundai-investment-in-evs-and-american-factory.

²⁸ John Liu, “South Korean Chip Makers Get U.S. Waivers From China Export Rules,” New York Times, October 9, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/business/samsung-sk-hynix-us-chip-export-controls.html.

²⁹ Chad P. Brown, “How the United States Solved South Korea’s Problems With Electric Vehicle Subsidies Under the Inflation Reduction Act,” Working Paper 23-6, Peterson Institute for International Economics, July 2023, p. 20., https://www.piie.com/sites/default/files/2023-07/wp23-6.pdf.

³⁰ CalChamber Advocacy, “Trading Partner Portal: South Korea.”.

³¹ CalChamber Advocacy, “Trading Partner Portal: South Korea.”

³² “South Korea,” Observatory of Economic Complexity, 2021, https://oec.world/en/profile/country/kor.

³³ “South Korea,” Observatory of Economic Complexity.

³⁴ Saemoon Yoon, “This Is How South Korea Can Become a Global Innovation Hub,” World Economic Forum, January 21, 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/startups-in-south-korea-are-thriving-this-is-why.

³⁵ Minlu Zhang, "Chinese Students Turning Backs on United States," China Daily, July 3, 2023, https://epaper.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202307/03/WS64a1f7d8a3109411cfdc8956.html.

³⁶“2022 Fast Facts,” Open Doors, Institute of International Education, https://opendoorsdata.org/annual-release/international-students/#related-data.

³⁷ Ruslan Tusunov, “South Korea: Big Opportunities for Digital Health Firms,” Intralink, April 5, 2022, http://www.intralinkgroup.com/en-GB/Latest/Blog/April-2022/South-Korea-big-prospects-for-digital-health.

³⁸ Sai Balasubramanian, “Venture Capital Firms Are Partnering With Healthcre Organizations to Improve Digital Health,” Forbes, November 28, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/saibala/2022/11/28/venture-capital-firms-are-partnering-with-healthcare-organizations-to-improve-digital-health/?sh=332ec95675e8.

³⁹ Dan Walters, “What Should California’s Future Look Like?,” Cal Matters, July 17, 2022, https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/07/multiple-scenarios-suggested-for-californias-future.