Lee heads home after five-nation overseas trip

FRANKFURT — President Lee Jae Myung headed home Sunday after wrapping up a trip aimed at strengthening cooperation with U.S. tech giants on artificial intelligence (AI) and with South American nations on critical minerals. Frankfurt was the final stop on Lee's overseas trip, where he briefly stopped to meet with members of the Korean community in Germany. During his earlier visit to San Francisco, Lee met with the heads of leading U.S. tech companies, including Jensen Huang of Nvidia. During his subsequent visits to Brazil, Chile and Argentina, Lee held summits with the countries' presidents and agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in areas ranging from critical and strategic minerals to crude oil imports. The tour was aimed at laying the foundation for the country's vision of becoming a global AI semiconductor manufacturing hub and securing and diversifying supplies of related critical minerals. Lee is scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Monday (local time).