What Happened: South Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol held a video call with Tesla CEO Musk last week, and the presidential office cited Musk as saying that Seoul is among the top candidate locations for the company's new factory. 

“If Tesla, Space X or other companies are considering more investment in Korea, including constructing a Gigafactory, the government will do our best to support the investment,” Yoon told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

The South Korean leader said his country offers highly skilled workers, and his administration would ensure that the local regulations align with international standards so that foreign automakers do not face unexpected financial or regulatory hurdles.

“We are preparing a tailored approach to grant some advantages to these specified companies,” Yoon added. 

Meanwhile, many safety advocates in the Asian nation recently asked the government to change the U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) provision that exempts Tesla from local standards after December 2020 accident in Seoul. 

Tesla is not required to follow Seoul’s regulations of at least one front-seat and back-seat door to have a mechanical failsafe because the FTA exempts carmakers with sales under 50,000 vehicles from local safety rules.