Yoon Asks Elon Musk to Build Tesla Factory in Korea

President Yoon Suk-yeol met Tesla chief Elon Musk on Wednesday and asked him to pick Korea to build an electric-car factory.

Presidential secretary Choi Sang-mok said Musk had asked for the meeting. "Korea has world-class robotic manufacturing facilities and highly skilled workers" and "is a country where Tesla will be able to achieve optimum efficiency in operating its giga-factory," he quoted Yoon as saying.

The EV maker has "giga-factories" in the U.S., China and Germany that seek to maximize production efficiency and is casting around for an Asian production base.

Yoon pledged to provide active support including tax breaks once Tesla picks Korea.

He also mentioned Musk's SpaceX despite last week's humiliating failure to launch a Starship, and said he hopes for increased cooperation with Korea's burgeoning space industry.

Musk said Korea is a "very interesting and high priority candidate" for the factory and added that he would like to visit.

The two already spoke on Zoom last November.