South Korea and the United States Monday began formal talks on renewing a civilian nuclear pact as Seoul wants to reprocess spent nuclear fuel due to a lack of storage facilities, Yonhap News Agency reported.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said, "The United States and the Republic of Korea have begun discussions on writing a new civil-nuclear cooperation agreement."
The Korean delegation is led by Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs Cho Hyun.
The South Korea-U.S. nuclear agreement, signed in 1974 and valid until 2014, bans Seoul from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel.