US affirms support for Korean uranium enrichment

The briefing, issued on 13 November by the White House and the Office of the President of the Republic of Korea, follows Trump's 29 October state visit to Korea at which the two presidents "declared a new chapter in the US-ROK Alliance, the linchpin for peace, security and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region".

The factsheet reaffirms a USD350 million strategic trade and investment deal announced in July and outlines commitments on a range of trade and security issues, with South Korea saying it welcomes US support for its civil and naval nuclear power programmes.

"Consistent with the bilateral 123 Agreement and subject to US legal requirements, the United States supports the process that will lead to the ROK’s civil uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing for peaceful uses," the briefing states.

"The United States has given approval for the ROK to build nuclear-powered attack submarines. The United States will work closely with the ROK to advance requirements for this shipbuilding project, including avenues to source fuel."

Formal cooperation agreements are required between countries that want to trade nuclear power goods and services, and those involving the USA are called 123 Agreements after the paragraph of the country's 1954 Atomic Energy Act which requires them.

South Korea is a prominent nuclear energy country - 26 reactors, totalling about 26 GWe of capacity, provide around one-third of its electricity, and South Korean nuclear technology is exported widely - but the terms of its 123 Agreement dating back to 1974 had constrained it from pursuing uranium enrichment or fuel reprocessing.

A 20-year extension, agreed in 2015, allowed a little more freedom and opened up the possibility of future enrichment through consultation with the USA, according to information from World Nuclear Association, and a high-level bilateral commission was set up for ongoing discussions.