The administration of then-President Joe Biden put South Korea on the lowest tier of the Sensitive and Other Designated Countries List in January shortly before Biden left office, the DOE said in a written response to Reuters queries.
The designation will go into effect on April 15, media reports said.
“We will actively negotiate to ensure that there is no negative impact on energy, science and technology cooperation between South Korea and the United States,“ the ministry said in a statement.
President Yoon Suk Yeol and then-Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun are among officials who raised the prospect that Seoul would be forced to pursue nuclear weapons amid fears over Pyongyang's weapons program and concerns about the U.S. alliance.
Yoon backed off rhetoric about a nuclear weapons program after negotiating with Biden a 2023 agreement under which Washington is to give Seoul more insight into U.S. planning to deter and respond to a nuclear incident in the region. In return, Seoul renewed a pledge not to pursue a nuclear bomb of its own and said it would abide by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which it has signed.
Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said last month that nuclear weapons were not “off the table”, though it was premature to talk about such a plan.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the nonprofit Arms Control Association, said that in light of such “provocative” statements, South Korea is a proliferation risk and the DOE was prudent to put the country on its list.
The handling of the designation raised concerns in Seoul. Cho told parliament on Tuesday that his ministry had had no formal communication from the Biden administration and only heard about the possible designation from an informal tip-off.
“Currently there are no new restrictions on bilateral science and technology cooperation with the ROK,“ the DOE said. “The Energy Department looks forward to collaborating with the ROK to advance our mutual interests.”
Though the designation does not prohibit scientific or technical cooperation, visits to the listed countries and cooperation undergo an internal review beforehand, the department said. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, David Brunnstrom in Washington, and Ju-min Park and Josh Smith in Seoul; Editing by William Mallard and Sam Holmes)
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