U.S.–South Korea Nuclear Talks Held Months Late Amid Investment Delay and Coupang Dispute

South Korea and the United States discussed the timeline for follow-up talks on Seoul's push for nuclear-powered submarines and its bid to secure the right to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes during meetings held June 2-3 in Seoul.

The talks were the second and final day of a meeting that began Tuesday and were part of efforts to advance agreements reached at an October summit between the leaders of the two countries last year.

U.S. Committed to supporting processes that would lead to uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing for civilian use, as well as Seoul's push to build conventionally armed nuclear-propelled submarines. U.S. delegation was led by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker, who arrived in Seoul on Monday.

Ivan Kanapathy, senior director for Asia at the National Security Council, and Matthew Napoli, deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration, accompanied her. "The two sides agreed to work together to produce tangible results in a swift manner and to establish a mechanism to review progress and speed up consultations going forward," the foreign ministry said in a release.

A Seoul official said the talks included discussions on a potential timeline and broad directions for follow-up consultations.

The allies plan to hold the next round of talks in Washington as early as July. First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo and Allison Hooker walked toward a conference room for talks at the foreign ministry in Seoul on June 2. Wednesday's talks likely centered on the issue of allowing Seoul to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel for civilian purposes, which would require revising the allies' 2015 nuclear energy cooperation pact.