| South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol rode to electoral victory last year on a tough-on-China, closer to the U.S. campaign platform. Yoon’s new director of national security, Cho Taeyong, is a key player in that strategy. Cho — a veteran diplomat with four decades of experience in U.S.-South Korean relations — began his new role last week after a nine-month tenure as ambassador to the U.S. And Cho helmed preparations for Yoon’s White House visit later this month, which will mark the climax of moves toward warmer bilateral ties by celebrating the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korea mutual defense treaty. Under Cho’s watch, South Korea has become a founding member of President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework aimed to challenge Beijing’s regional economic heft. South Korea has responded to Biden’s call for international support for Ukraine with a recent $130 million pledge to support Kiev’s energy infrastructure and humanitarian needs. And Seoul helped co-host Biden’s second Summit for Democracy last month along with Zambia, Costa Rica and the Netherlands. I spoke with Cho about the transformation of U.S.-South Korean relations over the past quarter century, the power of K-pop icons BTS and the Netflix series Squid Game in boosting bilateral ties and how Yoon’s “values”-based foreign policy is tightening Seoul’s embrace with the U.S. The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. You were previously posted to Washington, D.C., from 1994-1996. How has U.S.-South Korea diplomacy changed in the past 25 years? What’s different is Korea has become an important player in the supply chains in all important items – semiconductors, batteries – and all these issues are now at the center of the relationship. That was certainly not the case 25 years ago. And when we have visitors like cabinet ministers and high-level delegations, a lot of doors are now open for them much more so than 25 years ago. I don't talk about North Korea so much these days. Back then every time I met with U.S. officials I talked about North Korea. In the past, we talked about the global trading system and global norms like the World Trade Organization. But now, national security interests are more pronounced, even in economic areas. And in this, I hope that the United States will value the opinions and interests of its allies as important and beneficial to the United States. What changes have you seen in the U.S.-South Korean people-to-people relationship? Back then nobody knew about Korea. I was sometimes asked whether Korea has its own alphabet or its own distinct language. Now many Americans know BTS, and other K-pop groups. And many people have seen the movie Parasite or watched series like Squid Game, Mr. Sunshine or Crash Landing on You. Twenty years ago, Korea was the consumer of American culture — it was a one-way street. It’s now a two-way street. Back then the Korean American community was not quite as part of the mainstream American community. But now they are actively contributing to the development of American society from so many angles. Back then we had only one member of Korean heritage in the U.S. Congress. I think now we have four. And I think they are playing an increasingly important role to bring our two countries continuously close to each other. How did the Biden administration’s focus on the U.S.-China relationship affect your role as South Korea’s ambassador to the U.S.? China is the number one trading partner for Korea, and our trade with China is still bigger than Korea’s trade with the U.S. and Japan combined. We don't want to quarrel with China. But we will now conduct our relations with China based upon mutual respect with a capital “M.” We want an equal partnership with China. And if there is no problem with that, I'm sure that we can pursue and we can develop further our relations with China. Or if not, then perhaps different consequences might occur. For the new government in Korea, our alliance with the United States is the most important thing. North Korea is more threatening, so alliances are important. We’re pursuing closer relations with the U.S. not only because of our own national interests but also because the new Korean government believes that values are a central part of our foreign policy, and that encourages us to get closer to the United States. What’s Seoul’s beef with Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act? The enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 was a complete surprise to Korea and all other countries. When it comes to the purpose and general direction of the legislation, Korea believes that this is a good law. It is just that one paragraph of the law having to do with the tax credit for electric vehicles — that's a problem for us. Because we believe that hasn’t taken into account the fact that Korea has a free trade agreement with the U.S. The lack of prior communication took away any opportunities from us to voice our opinion and perhaps to give us the opportunity to adjust some language in the law. We have had sustained communication and consultation, so I think the current status is much better than what we faced in July last year. What has been the biggest U.S.-Korean diplomatic challenge you’ve faced in your career? We had a huge incident in 2002 [when a U.S. military vehicle crushed to death two South Korean teens in an accident outside of Seoul] And the alliance paid a huge price. Two Korean schoolgirls died in that incident. We weren't able to deal with this problem to the satisfaction of the Korean people at the time. That had an important impact upon the people and that probably affected political outcomes later in the year. Alliances can survive and can stand the test of time if both countries really focus upon the central values of the alliance. Some issues related to the [suitability of locating a massive] U.S. Forces Korea base in Seoul became a huge issue. So we asked the U.S.: What can you do if something like this happens again? How can we better control the USFK training so that nothing bad happens again? Are we going to maintain the USFK main base in Seoul’s city center or should we look to relocate this big base to the outside of the capital? Which we later did actually. So all these questions came up — very difficult times. But after about maybe six to seven years, the support from the Korean people for the alliance actually went up substantially. And now the U.S. is enjoying a public favorability rating of 80 percent. Thanks to editor Heidi Vogt and producer Andrew Howard. SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: D.C. 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