Korea to gain wiggle room on nuclear policy

Decades-old ROK-US agreement finally revised

By Yi Whan-woo

South Korea and the United States reached agreement for a revision of their nuclear cooperation deal, Wednesday, allowing Seoul to expand its commercial use of nuclear energy.

Park Ro-byug, Seoul’s Ambassador for Nuclear and Special Representative for the Republic of Korea (ROK)-U.S. Nuclear Cooperation, signed a provisional pact with U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert in Seoul.

The 21-point deal will require final approval from both President Park Geun-hye and her U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to take effect.

The agreement states that South Korea has the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy as signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said South Korea achieved its three goals in bilateral agreement — winning the right to deal with spent nuclear fuel, securing a stable supply of nuclear fuel and promoting the export of nuclear power plants.

In particular, the two parties agreed to lift the “gold standard” from their original 1974 agreement that legally binds U.S. partners to foreswear uranium enrichment and reprocessing, according to the foreign ministry.

The accord will allow Seoul to secure long-term advance consent from Washington for early stages in experimental reprocessing, called “pyroprocessing,” including “post-irradiation examination” and “electro-reduction.”

It remains to be seen whether Seoul will effectively carry out such reprocessing, however.

"Pyroprocessing" is defined as recycling spent fuel, but it has yet to be commercialized. It is said to have less chance of being converted into a program to produce nuclear weapons as it leaves separated plutonium mixed with other elements.

The accord also will allow Seoul to produce uranium enriched to less than 20 percent when using U.S. ingredients.

In addition, Seoul and Washington agreed to establish a high-level standing commission to consult on nuclear cooperation with the U.S., represented by Washington’s deputy secretary of energy and South Korea’s vice foreign minister.

The binding term for the pact was also reduced from the previous 30 years to 20 years.

“It is meaningful that we have opened the pathway for uranium enrichment,” a ministry official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.

“This agreement marks a major milestone for the U.S.-ROK alliance and reinforces the alliance as a linchpin of peace and security in the Asia-Pacific Region,” The U.S. embassy in Seoul said in a press release.

“The new agreement sets the framework for reciprocal, dynamic and robust bilateral cooperation on civil nuclear energy for years to come and enhances our relationship across the spectrum of political, economic, energy, science, and technology cooperation for the future.”

Yun Duk-min, the Chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA), said, “The revised deal will boost Seoul as one of Washington’s reciprocal partners in the nuclear energy industry.”

Seoul and Washington held rounds of talks from October 2010 to negotiate how to revise their civic nuclear cooperation agreement.

The original pact, also known as “123 Agreements,” was scheduled to expire in March. The two parties extended the deadline until March 2016 to buy more time for negotiations after repeatedly failing to make a compromise over their revisions.

In their original agreement, South Korea was banned from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel in exchange for U.S. technological assistance.

Citing proliferation concerns, Washington had been reluctant about Seoul’s demand that it should be allowed to undertake enrichment and reprocessing activities, just as Japan is allowed to do under a U.S. bilateral agreement.

With 23 reactors at home, South Korea is a nuclear plant exporter. It is currently building reactor plants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It is also a supplier of heavy components for nuclear power plants under construction in China and the U.S.

For nonproliferation reasons, Washington has been opposed to allowing reprocessing and enrichment with its nuclear partners and has held out the “gold standard” in its agreements, most recently with the UAE.

The ROK-U.S. Nuclear Cooperation was frequently a political issue in South Korea since negotiations for revisions were launched in 2010.

President Park Geun-hye spoke on the issue during her 2012 presidential campaign.

She vowed to replace the outdated 123 Agreement and support South Korea’s nuclear reactor industry in overseas markets as one of the nation’s new growth engines.