Toward Decline
South Korea Has Diversified Some Critical Minerals. The Hardest Dependencies Remain.
The Diplomat Institutional·2026-06-15TradeP1: Resource SovereigntyP5: Strategic DecouplingP7: Alliance Architecture
Why it matters
South Korea's persistent high-dependency on Chinese critical minerals (up to 94.2% for some) despite diversification efforts signals that AUKUS allies face similar structural vulnerabilities in supply-chain decoupling from China. Australia must accelerate its own critical-mineral sovereignty and processing capacity, as allied partners' failures to truly de-risk Chinese dependency will constrain regional strategic autonomy in any kinetic scenario.
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