Will Korea’s ‘sensitive’ country designation impair cooperation with the U.S.?

SEOUL — A revelation that the U.S. Division of Power has designated South Korea as a “delicate country” — a label reserved for nations deemed to pose a risk to nationwide safety or nuclear nonproliferation — has left South Korean officers scrambling for solutions.

Questioned by lawmakers throughout a parliamentary session on March 11, International Minister Cho Tae-yul stated the South Korean authorities had been unaware of the measure, discovering out by “unofficial channels” solely after native media broke the information a day earlier.

Maintained by the Division of Power’s counterintelligence unit, the Delicate Country Record contains nuclear states corresponding to India and Russia in addition to nations deemed to be sponsors of terrorism, corresponding to North Korea or Iran.

South Korea’s addition to the listing, which the Division of Power introduced to analysis establishments beneath its purview this month, will probably be finalized by April 15, South Korea’s Hankyoreh newspaper reported.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, middle proper, and his spouse, Kim Keon-hee, wave the nationwide flags.

(Ahn Younger-joon / Related Press)

In a press release to The Instances on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Division of Power confirmed the change had been made by the outgoing Biden administration in January, however didn’t clarify why.

“Inclusion doesn’t essentially point out an adversarial relationship with the United States. Many designated nations are these we often cooperate with on quite a lot of power, science, expertise, counterterrorism and nonproliferation points,” the spokesperson stated, including that South Korea was labeled an “Different Designated Country” — the “lowest class” of the listing.

“Inclusion on the SCL additionally doesn’t prohibit People or U.S. Division of Power (DOE) personnel from visiting or doing enterprise with listed nations, simply because it doesn’t stop these international nationals from visiting DOE websites,” the spokesperson stated. “The designation doesn’t prohibit scientific or technical cooperation. These visits and cooperation endure an inside assessment beforehand.”

On Monday, Cho informed native reporters that officers believed the transfer was triggered by “a security-related downside” at a Division of Power analysis lab. In an auditing report overlaying October 2023 by March 2024 submitted to Congress, the Division of Power disclosed it had fired a contractor for making an attempt to board a airplane to South Korea with “proprietary nuclear reactor design software program.”

Nonetheless, the U.S. authorities’s unannounced transfer to place a serious, nonnuclear ally in the similar firm as nations corresponding to China or North Korea has unsettled politicians, with many decoding it as a blow to the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

“One thing unprecedented in the 70 years of the U.S.-South Korea alliance has occurred,” stated Democratic Get together spokesperson Kim Sung-hoi.

Nonproliferation specialists have attributed the resolution to U.S. wariness of the rising refrain in South Korea for its personal nuclear armament.

Though South Korea has been a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since the Nineteen Seventies, that notion has gained important traction since President Trump’s first time period, when Trump hinted that the U.S. may withdraw troops from South Korea, which he has accused of not paying sufficient for his or her maintenance.

“Why would we defend any person? And we’re speaking a couple of very rich country. However they’re a really rich country and why wouldn’t they need to pay?” Trump stated in an interview with Time journal final 12 months.

With the U.S. now not seen as a dependable supplier of navy help, high-ranking officers right here have overtly mulled over the risk of South Korea creating its personal nuclear capabilities, amongst them conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol — who at the moment faces impeachment for his declaration of martial regulation final 12 months — and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.

“There could come a time after we can now not depend on the U.S. for our safety,” wrote former International Minister Yoon Younger-kwan in a newspaper column this month, shortly after the Trump administration suspended navy support to Ukraine. “And to organize for such a state of affairs, we have to strengthen our personal navy energy, together with potential nuclear capabilities, in order that we will include North Korea on our personal.”

Regardless of South Korea’s formal commitments to nonproliferation, these feedback are probably being interpreted by U.S. officers rather more severely than South Korean officers may suppose, stated Tom Countryman, a former assistant secretary of State for worldwide safety and nonproliferation.

South Korean military self-propelled howitzers take positions in Paju, close to the border with North Korea. Throughout President Trump’s first time period, he hinted that the U.S. may withdraw troops from South Korea, which he has accused of not paying sufficient for his or her maintenance.

(Ahn Younger-joon / Related Press)

“It’s uncommon, however at the similar time, there isn’t any different country in the world that doesn’t have already got nuclear weapons the place the public debate about possibly getting nuclear weapons is as loud as it’s in the Republic of Korea proper now,” he stated of the delicate country itemizing.

Countryman, who in 2015 led negotiations with South Korea for the revised 123 Settlement — a pact that the U.S. authorities requires of nations searching for technical cooperation and help in civil nuclear power — famous that U.S. officers are nonetheless aware of the undeniable fact that South Korea as soon as ran a covert nuclear weapons program in the Nineteen Seventies and that subsequent administrations right here have continued to push for the obligatory U.S. permission to reprocess spent nuclear reactor gasoline into plutonium, which is a vital stepping stone towards constructing nuclear weapons.

“It’s nonetheless a related historical past immediately,” he stated.

Due partially to important technological help from the U.S. courting again many years, South Korea has considered one of the most refined civil nuclear applications in the world, with 26 reactors offering about 30% of the country’s electrical energy.

Citing the problem of storing spent gasoline in South Korea’s small land mass, South Korean officers have lengthy argued for the proper to reprocess its personal spent gasoline as Japan does, a call that the 123 Settlement in 2015 postponed.

However South Korea’s current designation could imply that the door on that aim has closed.

“I imagine that each one of the unfastened political discuss nuclear weapons makes it much less probably that the United States would give such permission,” Countryman stated.

In South Korea, many concern that the designation will hamstring technological cooperation with the U.S., together with in nuclear power in addition to synthetic intelligence and quantum computing.

“It should forged a chill over the analysis environment, particularly with stricter screening for South Korean researchers making an attempt to go to the U.S. or take part in initiatives that the Division of Power sees as delicate or dangerous,” stated Moon Joo-hyun, a nuclear scientist at Dankook College.

Amongst the analysis areas affected could also be small modular reactors, which have been hailed by governments as a more cost effective and safer various to conventional nuclear reactors, alongside issues that they pose a larger proliferation danger.

Nuclear specialists corresponding to Moon say South Korea, which is considered one of the few nations in the world that exports nuclear reactors, could discover itself topic to Division of Power controls on the foundation that South Korea’s flagship export reactor was constructed primarily based on a U.S. design.

Following a $20-billion deal in 2009 to offer the United Arab Emirates with 4 reactors, South Korea has expressed curiosity in exporting its reactors to Saudi Arabia, which has refused to signal a 123 Settlement with the U.S. until it’s allowed to complement its personal uranium — one other path to creating nuclear bombs.

Final 12 months, after the Czech Republic named South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Energy as the most popular bidder for its personal main nuclear energy mission, U.S.-based nuclear energy firm Westinghouse filed a lawsuit in opposition to Korea Hydro alleging mental property violations. The 2 firms reached a settlement this 12 months.

“There have been plenty of facets of the Czech bid that appeared to make the U.S. uncomfortable, and I truly suppose that this concern of South Korea’s rising share in the world nuclear power market may also have performed an element in the resolution to listing South Korea,” stated Hwang Ji-hwan, a nuclear nonproliferation professional at the College of Seoul.

”There are nonetheless areas wherein South Korea wants the cooperation of their U.S. counterparts throughout these export offers, corresponding to patents. These might take a success,” Hwang stated.