South Korea, Vietnam leaders to meet in Hanoi next week, sources say

HANOI — Vietnam's president To Lam is set to meet his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung in Hanoi next week, five people familiar with the matter said.

Lee's visit would be the first by a foreign leader to Vietnam since Lam was elected president last week, a move that allows him to combine the post with the leadership of the Communist Party, the most powerful job in the one-party state.

It would not be however Lam's first top-level meeting in his new position, as he met China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday (April 15).

The meeting is currently scheduled for April 23, the sources said.

Government co-operation agreements are likely to be signed. 

Seoul is also interested in some of Vietnam's largest infrastructure projects, such as railways and nuclear power plants, but no major decisions are expected in those areas, they said.

South Korea's foreign ministry declined to comment. Vietnam's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

South Korea is the largest investor in the Southeast Asian nation in terms of accumulated capital, with output from Samsung factories alone accounting for more than one-tenth of the country's exports. 

Yet Korean investment pledges fell about 25 per cent last year from 2024, according to Vietnam's government data, amid trade uncertainties and concerns over Vietnam's regulations.

The meeting would be the leaders' second in about eight months, after Lam visited Seoul in August, the first foreign leader hosted by Lee after he was elected president in Seoul.

Lee will be accompanied by a large business delegation including officials from Samsung, with multiple corporate agreements expected to be signed, possibly on April 23, officials have said without elaborating on the possible deals.

Samsung's talks with Vietnamese authorities to build a back-end semiconductor factory have made progress after years of negotiations, but it remains unclear when any announcement could be made, three people familiar with the matter said.

Reports of a planned US$4 billion (S$5.1 billion) investment in a semiconductor testing, and possibly packaging, facility were removed from Vietnamese media in recent days.

The three people said Samsung's potential outlay had not been finalised. 

The total initial investment would be smaller and could expand over time, potentially including a cluster of suppliers, one of them said.

Samsung declined to comment.