Nuclear powerU.S., South Korea delay nuclear fuel deal
The president of South Korea, Park Geun-Hye, has been campaigning to get the United States to lift the ban on South Korea from enriching uranium and processing spent nuclear fuel. The ban was part of a 1972 treaty, which was set to expire next March. A deal appeared to be on the way at some point this year, but officials from both countries said the deadline would be extended to 2016. What did not help the negotiations were statements by some South Korean officials that the country should build its own nuclear weapons reather than rely on U.S. nuclear umbrella.
The Obama administration and South Korea have delayed the deadline for a deal which would allow Seoul to begin making its own nuclear fuel for its civil nuclear energy program.
The New York Times reports that a deal appeared to be on the way at some point this year, but officials from both countries said the deadline would be extended to 2016.
The president of South Korea, Park Geun-Hye, has been campaigning to get the United States to lift the ban on South Korea from enriching uranium and processing spent nuclear fuel. The ban was part of a 1972 treaty, which was set to expire next March.
South Korea’s effort to get the ban lifted comes at the same time that North Korea has been angered by sanctions imposed by the United Nations. As a result, North Korea has threatened to attack the United States and South Korea.
Some South Korea officials say South Korea needs to build its own nuclear program so it can defend itself rather than rely on the United States. American officials say, however, that lifting the ban would complicate efforts to persuade North Korea to discontinue its nuclear program and stop effortss by Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
The Park’s administration has maintained that it will not use its program to build nuclear weapons, but analysts say that the fact that some South Koran officials openly called for building a nuclear arsenal has hurt the country’s leverage at the negotiating table.
During a recent visit to South Korea, Secretary of State John Kerry pushed for an agreement to be finalized before a planned summit meeting between Park and President Barack Obama in early May. Kerry also said that lifting the ban would not be a simple process.
“We are at a delicate moment with respect to the situation with the North, and we are also dealing with Iran and are very concerned at this time about not having any ingredients that could alter our approach with respect to either of those,” Kerry said in the South Korean capital, Seoul on 12 April.
Park’s foreign minister Yun Byung-se, told reporters that the negotiations would be an important test of “trust” between the two countries.
“Washington does not seem to trust South Korea as much as it reiterates blood-tight relations,” the mass-circulation newspaper JoongAng Ilbo said in an editorial last Saturday, when unconfirmed reports of a delay in the deadline began to circulate. “Just because the pact has been extended for two years does not assure that the two will narrow their differences. It is merely a makeshift move to avoid a dispute.”
When asked what specifically led to the delay, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell, did not give reporters much.
“I don’t think it hinges on one thing or another, other than these are very technical talks.” Ventrell told reporters.
