Wi Sung-lac, director of the Office of National Security, will meet with U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Alyssa Hooker at Cheong Wa Dae on the afternoon of the 2nd. The two sides are expected to address security issues including construction of Korea's nuclear-powered submarine agreed with the Donald Trump administration, as well as securing authority for uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. In particular, the issue of transferring wartime operational control (OPCON), a campaign pledge by President Lee Jae-myung, could also be raised.
Amid a recently exposed gap between South Korea and the United States over OPCON transfer, it is noteworthy that President Lee used the term "reversion" instead of "transfer," signaling an intent to restore military sovereignty. At a Cabinet meeting on the 26th, Lee said, "Please proceed without delay and without setbacks with the reversion of wartime operational control, which will drive the healthy development of the South Korea-U.S. alliance." When Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-baek said, "Even if OPCON is taken back tomorrow, there would be no major problem with us defending ourselves," Lee replied, "It's not that there should be no major problem; there should be no problem at all."
Our government has repeatedly said it will use only "low-enriched uranium under 20%" (LEU) as fuel for nuclear subs. The point is that it is unrelated to highly enriched uranium that can be used to make nuclear weapons, underscoring compliance with international norms such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). In South Korea-U.S. talks, a key issue is the domestic U.S. legal procedures to support importing LEU. Under the current South Korea-U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement, South Korea must obtain U.S. consent to enrich uranium. All uranium for nuclear power plant fuel is also imported. To secure a stable uranium supply and for South Korea to obtain independent enrichment and reprocessing authority, approval from the U.S. administration and Congress is required.
Vice Minister Hooker arrived in South Korea the previous day leading the U.S. delegation from the White House National Security Council (NSC), the State Department, the Energy Department, and the War Department. The visit was arranged to open negotiations to implement the security agreements in the Joint Fact Sheet (JFT) that President Lee and President Trump reached at their summit in Oct. last year. In connection with this, the South Korea-U.S. government delegations will open an official meeting at 10 a.m. on the 2nd at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Seoul, and the meeting will continue through the 3rd.