In the U.S. House, a bill was introduced to establish a dialogue channel among the legislatures of the United States, Korea, and Japan, and to build databases to support reunions between Korean Americans and their separated family members in North Korea. The bill, which effectively reorganizes the State Department, also includes guidelines for renegotiating the nuclear cooperation agreement.
According to the congressional bill information system on the 12th (local time), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson Brian Mast (R-Fla.) the previous day submitted a bill encompassing a range of State Department policies. The bill requires that within 180 days of enactment, the Minister of the State Department consult with the governments of Korea and Japan to open a "trilateral U.S.-Korea-Japan inter-parliamentary dialogue."
Once the dialogue channel is established, the United States will participate by forming a "U.S. group" of eight lawmakers, with two appointed each by the leaders of the majority and minority in both the House and Senate. The term is two years.
The bill also includes provisions to support reunions for Korean Americans who left family members in North Korea during the 6/25 War. The State Department would compile a related roster so that, if talks on separated family reunions between the two Koreas take place in the future, it can be used at the national level. A similar bill passed the House last year but was scrapped when the session ended, and it was reintroduced in both the House and Senate in February this year.
There is an outlook that the bill has a higher chance of becoming law because it was personally introduced by Mast, a member of the House majority Republican Party and the committee Chairperson. The House Foreign Affairs Committee said the bill bundles nine separate bills and is bipartisan in nature.
The bill also includes guidance that, when renegotiating or renewing U.S. nuclear cooperation agreements (so-called 123 agreements) set to expire within 10 years, the United States should pursue the "gold standard," meaning the partner country's renunciation of enrichment and reprocessing. Korea is currently seeking to allow limited enrichment and reprocessing through an amendment to the agreement, which could become a key point of contention in future talks.
In addition, the bill includes a provision that the United States should strengthen nuclear cooperation with Europe and devise a strategy to block Russia's influence in the energy sector. The strategy should also include measures to strike a balance while considering competition issues between U.S. nuclear power corporations and corporations from allied countries such as Korea, Japan, and Canada.