Progress unlikely on Korea-US nuclear pact this year: expert

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Korea and the United States, both bracing for presidential elections, are unlikely to move forward on rewriting a nuclear treaty this year, a U.S.-based expert said Wednesday.

"The two sides remain at odds over key aspects of how their nuclear cooperation will proceed," said Miles Pomper, senior researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

Seoul wants Washington to allow the expansion of its nonmilitary activities to meet its enhanced status as a nuclear energy producer.

The existing pact, signed in 1974 and set to expire in 2014, bans Korea from reprocessing nuclear waste from about two dozen reactors using U.S.-supplied nuclear materials.

"Seoul continues to press for Washington to grant it advanced consent to recycle (or pyroprocess) spent fuel and to enrich uranium," Pomper said at a forum hosted by the Korea Economic Institute (KEI).

He pointed out, however, the U.S. has "sought to limit the global spread of these technologies as they can be used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons as well as fuel for nuclear reactors."

He said Seoul will have to continue taking on greater leadership responsibilities in the global nuclear nonproliferation regime just as it hosted the Nuclear Security Summit in March.

"In any case, few expect much progress to be made this year in negotiations for a new bilateral cooperation agreement," he said. "After all, both countries are consumed by presidential elections and neither country would want to risk a politically sensitive battle with their legislatures during an election year."