S. Korea, Netherlands discuss supply chain management at 1st economic security talks

South Korea and the Netherlands have discussed efforts to tackle supply chain disruptions and ways for cooperation in the area as they held their first bilateral economic security talks this week, Seoul's foreign ministry said Saturday.

The dialogue took place in The Hague on Friday (local time), led by Kim Jin-dong, director general for bilateral economic affairs at the South Korean foreign ministry, and Yvette van Eechoud, deputy director general for foreign economic relations at the Dutch foreign ministry.

The talks came as a follow-up to the agreement reached between the two countries to launch such a dialogue mechanism for economic security-related issues when President Yoon Suk Yeol paid a state visit to the Netherlands in December last year.

This week's talks centered on discussions on ways that the two countries can work together to effectively deal with supply chain disruptions, the ministry said in a release.

They agreed to continue efforts to boost cooperation in areas like semiconductors, which the two countries have already actively engaged in, and also research and development in core and new technologies as well as people-to-people exchanges.

They also agreed to expand cooperation in the exchange of information related to export controls and the screening process for investment, the ministry said.