Anthony Kuhn

About 74% of some 65,000 workers voted in favor of the deal.

It gives workers in the company's most profitable division, which makes memory chips, a 12% cut of annual profits.

If they meet this year's profit targets, workers could get an annual bonus of around $400,000 in stocks and cash.

Less profitable divisions making products such as TVs and smartphones will get far less.

A union representing some of those workers sued but failed to stop the deal.

The AI and semiconductor boom has also created a tax windfall for South Korea's government.

This has sparked a debate about how to distribute the boom's dividends across South Korean society.

Anthony Kuhn in PR News, Seoul.

Management and labor reached a tentative agreement about an hour before the 18-day strike was planned to start.

The strike is now suspended while workers vote to either accept or reject the proposed deal.

The unions were asking for performance bonuses equal to 15% of the company's operating profits.

The agreement is for them to get 10.5% of business performance earnings partly in stock with no cap over at least 10 years.

Semiconductors account for more than a third of South Korea's exports and investment in AI data centers has boosted chip demand.

Government concerns about a strike prompted the country's labor minister to step in and mediate between the two sides.

Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.

Secretary Besant announced his trip in a post on X. Besant is expected to continue pushing Japan and South Korea to prop up their currencies in order to cut their trade surpluses with the U.S.

and maintain the dollar's dominance as the global reserve currency.

In Seoul, Besant will also meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng to finalize arrangements for President Trump's summit with China's leader Xi Jinping.

In Busan, South Korea, last year, Trump and Xi reached a one-year truce in their trade war, with the U.S.

reducing tariffs in exchange for China purchasing more American products such as soybeans and airplanes and pausing export controls on rare earths.