S. Korea-US nuclear talks break down

By Chung Min-uck

South Korea and the United States made no progress in revising their bilateral nuclear agreement in Washington this week, foreign ministry officials said Friday.

The officials declined to say clearly whether Seoul wanted the Atomic Energy Agreement to be revised before President Park Geun-hye holds a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama next month.

“Our team will come back next week,” a ministry official said. “We will see what we will do from that point on.”

Korea has been adamant in changing the 39-year-old agreement with the U.S. once and for all, saying that it will opt to stick to the current form, unless it gets what it wants.

The allies launched a new round of discussions Tuesday, which lasted until Thursday, to rewrite the 1974 agreement.

Under the current pact, Seoul cannot enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel.

In the negotiations, the U.S., reportedly, offered “limited” and “conditional” rights to enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel, which was rejected.

The U.S. proposal calls for Korea to participate in multinational activity of uranium enrichment without having exclusive rights.

It also barred Korea from reprocessing spent fuel for the next 10 years.

Seoul insisted Washington to allow it to adopt proliferation-resistant technology for enriching uranium from its 23 nuclear power plants to fit its status as the world’s fifth largest nuclear energy producer and exporter.

It also emphasized urgent need to restructure rights to reprocess spent fuel as the country’s maximum capacity for nuclear waste storage will reach in 2016.

“There could be additional talks after reporting to President Park about the current status of the discussions,” said the official. “We will make an announcement after gathering ideas from related ministries.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier the U.S. expects to see the bilateral agreement revised before Park’s visit in May.

Meanwhile, the allies are also bracing to extend the accord’s expiration date for two years until 2016 if they fail to narrow their differences in the upcoming discussions.

The agreement was originally slated to expire next year, and for a revised accord to be approved by the U.S. Congress both sides must conclude negotiations by this summer.

Following the outcome, all eyes are on Park regarding what kind of stance she will take.

Since her election victory in December, the President has taken an aggressive stance in asking for the right to enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste mentioning the issue each time a senior U.S. official visited Korea.

On Jan. 16, Park asked senior officials including Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, for their cooperation in solving the issue of reprocessing the nuclear waste.