Seoul: The U.S. secretary of energy has confirmed South Korea will have no problem in its bilateral cooperation with the United States despite Seoul's designation as a "sensitive" country, a senior government official here said Monday. The remarks come after Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun's visit to Washington last week to meet with U.S. government officials, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to discuss the sensitive country and tariff issues.
According to Yonhap News Agency, if the country is designated as a sensitive country, procedures for Korean researchers visiting 17 national policy research institutes under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the institutes' researchers visiting South Korea could become more complicated. However, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright assured that there will be no problem with the ongoing and future bilateral cooperation between Seoul and Washington even if South Korea is placed on the sensitive country list.
Ahn earlier said the two sides have launched working-level talks to cooperate on a swift resolution of the issue. Ahn's latest visit to Washington, his second trip there in less than a month, came after the DOE confirmed that South Korea was placed in the lowest category of the department's sensitive and other designated countries list (SCL) in early January. The designation, set to take effect April 15, was made due to technical security issues related to DOE-affiliated research institutions, the Seoul government has noted.
The industry ministry official stated that the DOE list was meant to be a restricted document, noting it was not clear whether the DOE will disclose its future decisions even if it decides to remove South Korea from the list.
On tariff negotiations, another senior official at the industry ministry said the government is preparing a response strategy based on the worst-case scenario for the Donald Trump administration's plan to impose reciprocal tariffs. The official mentioned that they are preparing for the worst-case scenario of the duties going into effect, noting that the U.S. may impose different rates of reciprocal tariff by country.
South Korea's major industries, such as the automotive and semiconductor industries, are among the list of sectors with the biggest exports to the U.S. The Seoul government has been working to help the country get favorable treatment from the U.S., emphasizing South Korean companies' massive investments in the U.S. and continuing close communications.