Seoul: South Korea is poised to commence discussions with the United States aimed at revising their bilateral nuclear energy pact, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun announced on Thursday. The objective is to secure greater flexibility in the reprocessing of spent fuel and the enrichment of uranium for civilian energy purposes.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the current "123 Agreement" restricts South Korea to minimal levels of spent fuel reprocessing and uranium enrichment, limited to below 20 percent, and only with U.S. approval. South Korea is eager to renegotiate these terms to enable the production of its own nuclear fuel for civilian energy needs.
In a radio interview with MBC Radio, Cho emphasized the importance of this capability for South Korea, citing the country's operation of 26 commercial nuclear reactors. He highlighted that no other nation with such nuclear capacity is entirely dependent on imported fuel. Cho stated that from an industrial perspective, South Korea has "strongly" advocated for the ability to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
Cho indicated that the United States has acknowledged this stance, and negotiations are expected to start soon. However, the U.S. remains cautious about altering the pact due to concerns about nuclear proliferation, as reprocessing facilities can potentially be used to extract plutonium for nuclear weapons.
The 2015 revision of the pact allowed South Korea and the U.S. to jointly research "pyroprocessing" technology, which recycles spent nuclear fuel and is considered to pose fewer proliferation risks. Despite this, economic feasibility questions persist.
Regarding a potential announcement during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Korea, Cho mentioned there is no fixed timeline for concluding these talks. He stressed that the approach should prioritize national interest and commercial rationality, as articulated by President Lee Jae Myung.
South Korea has pledged a US$350 billion investment in exchange for the U.S. reducing reciprocal tariffs on Korean products and lowering the sectoral duty on automobiles to 15 percent from 25 percent. Kim Yong-beom, the presidential chief of staff for policy, noted in Washington that both sides have made "partial progress" on narrowing differences concerning the investment package's implementation.