South Korea and the United States have agreed to form a joint venture to help the American ally secure enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear power plants, President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday.
South Korea has long wanted to enrich uranium as fuel for its fleet of 26 nuclear reactors, all of whose fuel is now imported from countries like Russia. It also wanted to reprocess the rectors’ spent fuel for reuse and to reduce nuclear waste. But a decades-old bilateral treaty with Washington has prevented South Korea from engaging in such activities, because the same technology could also be used to make fuel for nuclear weapons.
After Mr. Lee met with President Trump on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific regional forum in Gyeongju, South Korea, last month, both governments announced that the United States agreed to support “the process that will lead to” South Korea’s enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of fuel for peaceful uses. But the announcement at the time left out key details.
Mr. Lee shared some details that were discussed, during a Wednesday news conference which was called to mark the anniversary of a brief imposition of martial law by his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol.
“When I told him that we imported about 30 percent of our enriched uranium fuel from Russia, President Trump talked about making a big profit by producing it on our own and suggested a partnership,” Mr. Lee said. “So we agreed to a 50-50 joint venture.”
When he was asked whether the proposed enrichment and reprocessing facilities would be based in South Korea or elsewhere, Mr. Lee said it didn’t matter a lot to his government. But “it would be preferable if we could do it at home,” he said, adding that it would be difficult to build such facilities abroad.
Many in South Korea have called for enrichment and reprocessing facilities on its soil so that the country could gain “nuclear latency.” That means possessing the capacity to quickly produce nuclear weapons should the country decide that it could no longer trust the United States’ commitment to protect it from a nuclear attack from North Korea. Washington has long opposed South Korea acquiring such capabilities for fear of nuclear proliferation.
On Wednesday, Mr. Lee reaffirmed South Korea’s commitment not to build a nuclear arsenal. There was no way his country would sacrifice the alliance with the United States in order to build nuclear weapons, he said.
“Some in the U.S. government seem to be a bit cautious,” Mr. Lee said. “We suspect that this may have to do with concern about nuclear armament. But we make our position clear: We have no intention of arming ourselves with nuclear weapons. It’s realistically impossible.”
The United States made South Korea sign a bilateral treaty in return for helping it build a nuclear energy industry in the 1970s. The treaty required Seoul not to enrich uranium or reprocess spent nuclear fuel, even for peaceful purposes, without American approval.
The commitment also complicated South Korea’s long-cherished dream of deploying its own nuclear-powered submarines. Without American support, South Korea cannot secure nuclear fuel for such submarines even if it builds them.
After meeting Mr. Lee in October, Mr. Trump said he gave “approval” for South Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines. But he created a hurdle for the ally when he said that those vessels should be built in Philadelphia as part of the United States’ efforts to revitalize its manufacturing industry.
South Korea wanted to build them in its own shipyards, doubting that the United States had enough facilities or engineers to make extra submarines, because its shipyards were struggling even to meet the orders from the U.S. Navy.
“We are not asking them to build nuclear-powered submarines for us or provide technology,” Mr. Lee said on Wednesday. “We will build them with our own technology, and we are just asking them to provide fuel for the vessels.”
The U.S. deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, met with South Korea’s first vice foreign minister, Park Yoonjoo, in Washington on Monday to discuss the implementation of a broad tariff, investment and security agreement between the countries.
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.
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