Yoon, Kishida agree to hydrogen cooperation at Stanford University

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to cooperate in the hydrogen sector in a discussion held at Stanford University on Friday.

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as moderator, take part in a discussion at Stanford University's Hoover Institute in California on Friday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to cooperate in the hydrogen sector in a discussion held at Stanford University on Friday.

Their talks at the university went over bilateral relations and trilateral cooperation between Korea, the United States and Japan in advanced technology.

Yoon noted that he and Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed during their trilateral summit at Camp David in August to develop three-way cooperation into a comprehensive cooperation mechanism, the presidential office said in a statement.

He called on the three countries to strengthen cooperation and demonstrate joint leadership in the fields of cutting-edge technology, establishment of AI and digital governance, carbon reduction and a clean energy transition.

The Korean and Japanese governments decided to promote the hydrogen sector together, highlighting it as an area with great potential for cooperation between the two countries.

Korea is leading globally in terms of hydrogen utilization, including the supply of hydrogen vehicles and fuel cells for power generation, while Japan is a technologically advanced country with the largest number of hydrogen patents.

However, both Korea and Japan lack the capacity to produce clean hydrogen.

Choi Sang-mok, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, said in a briefing Thursday, "If Korea and Japan join forces, we can significantly reduce hydrogen production costs." They can also lead in setting international norms, such as safety standards for clean hydrogen certification.

Yoon and Kishida in the Stanford panel discussed a range of issues including carbon neutrality, clean energy, quantum technology and startups.

The two leaders later took questions from students.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice served as moderator during the event, attended by around 400 Stanford faculty and students.

This marks the first the leaders of Korea and Japan held such a joint event in a third country.

Yoon and Kishida also held their seventh summit Thursday on the margins of the APEC summit in a continuation of their relay diplomacy following the normalization of bilateral ties frayed by historical disputes and a trade spat earlier this year.

Earlier Friday, Yoon in a retreat session of the APEC leaders' summit called for supply chain resilience by adopting early warning systems.

Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee were set to return to Seoul Saturday, wrapping their four-day trip to San Francisco.

President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee depart on the presidential jet from San Francisco Friday, ending a four-day visit to San Francisco for the APEC summit. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]