SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Thursday that the U.S. and South Korea agreed to discuss nuclear fuel reprocessing following a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung this week.
“We operate 26 nuclear power plants, buying and bringing in fuel for them every time… We have been feeling the necessity of being able to reprocess it and to make our own fuel through concentrates,” Cho said in a live televised interview.
“In order to do this, cooperation with the U.S. is most important. We need to change the nuclear agreement, or use another method under the agreement (between the countries). So it is very meaningful that we decided to begin discussions in that direction.”
South Korea is not allowed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel – which can be used to make nuclear weapons – without U.S. consent under an agreement between the countries.
Foreign Minister Cho has said previously that South Korea’s intention is for industrial and environmental purposes, not for nuclear armament.
Cho reiterated on Thursday that “any talk about wanting our own nuclear arms or having potential nuclear capabilities through revision (of the agreement) would be something that the U.S. could never accept in terms of overall nuclear non-proliferation.”
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo JinEditing by Ed Davies)
