WNAM REPORT: South Korea’s top envoy to the United States said Friday that Seoul will push for diplomatic efforts to secure a facility to reprocess spent nuclear fuel after a new U.S. administration is inaugurated in January, though he stressed Seoul does not pursue its own nuclear arsenal.
Ambassador Cho Hyun-dong made the remarks during a parliamentary audit, responding to lawmakers’ remarks that South Korea needs to persuade Washington to enable Seoul’s possession of a reprocessing facility, which is banned under a bilateral nuclear energy cooperation pact due to the U.S.’ proliferation concerns.
A reprocessing facility is used for recycling nuclear fuel to help mitigate environmental concerns, but it can also be utilized to extract plutonium used to build nuclear weapons.
“We will regard that as a priority issue that we will push for after a new U.S. government takes office,” Cho said.
His remarks appear to hint at the possibility of Seoul seeking to secure a reprocessing facility through a revision of the nuclear energy pact with Washington.
Later, the embassy said that the general tenor of his remarks was about Seoul’s commitment to continue ongoing efforts to strengthen bilateral nuclear energy cooperation with the next U.S. administration.
The ambassador reiterated Seoul’s current stance against seeking any nuclear option for national security.
“The purpose of the government striving to concretely and institutionally strengthen extended deterrence through the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) and the Washington Declaration is to craft the best measure to respond to North Korean threats without South Korea going as far as to have its own nuclear arms and bring in tactical nuclear arms,” he said. “That is the current administration’s position.”
During a White House summit in April last year, President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden adopted the Washington Declaration to strengthen the credibility of America’s “extended deterrence” commitment to using the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend its ally.
The launch of the NCG, a key nuclear deterrence dialogue, was included in the declaration.
South Korea has long wanted to have the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel at a time when North Korea has been doubling down on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Last revised in 2015, the nuclear energy pact between Seoul and Washington still bans Seoul from reprocessing and uranium enrichment. But it opened the way for South Korea to begin research into a new technology for spent nuclear fuel recycling, known as “pyroprocessing,” and in addition to making low-level enriched uranium with U.S. consent.
Unlike South Korea, Japan has the reprocessing right — a reason why many view Japan as being able to build nuclear arms within months if it decides to do so.
Also during the audit session, Cho said that the possibility of former President Donald Trump demanding renegotiation of a new defense cost-sharing deal between South Korea and the U.S. cannot be ruled out if he returns to office.
He was responding to a question about a new Special Measures Agreement (SMA) that Seoul and Washington reached earlier this month to determine Seoul’s share of the cost for the stationing of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
Under the 12th SMA to last until 2030, Seoul will pay 1.52 trillion won (US$1.14 billion) in 2026, up from 1.4 trillion won in 2025. The deal links an annual increase in Seoul’s SMA contributions to the Consumer Price Index — in a shift from the existing deal tying the increase to an annual rise in Seoul’s defense budget.
“Given that in the U.S., where a new SMA does not require congressional consent, we cannot rule out the possibility (of Trump demanding renegotiation) in line with presidential authority,” the ambassador said.
But the ambassador cast the 12th SMA as a “mutually beneficial” and “reasonable” outcome.
Cho noted that Seoul and Washington concluded the latest SMA negotiations before the U.S. presidential election next month amid expectation that a state-to-state agreement would be respected regardless of a presidential transition.
“We cannot say that there is no possibility at all (of a demand for renegotiation),” he said. “But no matter what situation unfolds, we will respond based on the well-negotiated, reasonable level (of the new deal).”
During his presidency marked by his America first policy approach, Trump was known to have called for a hefty rise in South Korea’s financial contributions for the upkeep of USFK, leading to a prolonged impasse in SMA talks that at some point, led Korean USFK personnel to even face furloughs.
Seoul and Washington launched their SMA negotiations in April — earlier than usual — amid concerns that Trump could drive a hard bargain over burden sharing in a way that could cause tensions in the bilateral alliance amid growing North Korean military threats.
