Sejong Focus

Korea-US Nuclear Cooperation Directions and Tasks after the Moon-Biden Summit

Date 2021-07-02 View 1,745

Korea-US Nuclear Cooperation Directions and Tasks after the Moon-Biden Summit 

JUN Bong-geun 

(jun2030@mofa.go.kr) 

Professor,  

Korea National Diplomatic Academy 

 

English Abstract

 

At the South Korea-U.S. summit on May 21st, an agreement was made to cooperate in the nuclear industry, participate in the nuclear market, promote cooperation in the nuclear power supply network, demand additional IAEA safety measures, and hold a high-level committee. In order to prevent Russia and China from dominating the nuclear power market and expanding geopolitically, the U.S. intends to promote nuclear power exports with South Korea, which has the best nuclear plant construction capacity among its allies and value-sharing countries. Cooperating with the U.S. is a win-win strategy for South Korea as South Korea is currently struggling to cope with the financial, non-proliferation, and geopolitical risks of exporting its nuclear power.